Two weeks after seizing control of Sloviansk in eastern Ukraine on April 12, 2014, Igor Girkin (Strelkov), an officer (allegedly former) of Russia’s military intelligence (GRU), claimed that his men did not want to kill Ukrainian soldiers whom he called “brothers”. His interview was given nine days after the Russian-armed militants under his overall control seized Volodymyr Rybak, a Ukrainian politician defending the flag of Ukraine and two very young students, Yury Popravka and Yuri Dyakovsky. The men’s savagely mutilated bodies were found in a stream near Sloviansk on April 19.
Russia's War Against Ukraine
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Halya Coynash: Tortured to death for defending Ukraine – the first Russian war crimes in Donbas
A Russian flag flies near Russia-backed separatists sitting atop a 2S1 Gvozdika (122-mm self-propelled howitzer) as a convoy of Russian-hybrid forces takes a break as they move from the frontline near the eastern Ukrainian city of Starobeshevo in Donetsk region, on Feb. 25, 2015.
