‘Beyond reform’

A group of Russian commanders are secretly on trial for imprisoning, torturing, and killing their own soldiers, new investigation finds

The Russian authorities have launched a classified criminal case against a major general from the army’s 6th Motorized Rifle Division and his subordinate officers for allegedly imprisoning, torturing, and murdering soldiers in their unit. The case was first reported by journalists from the Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne who say they obtained information about it from a source in the Russian Investigative Committee. In English, Meduza shares a summary of Suspilne’s findings.

The Russian military authorities created the 6th Motorized Rifle Division in 2022, shortly after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The formation includes multiple regiments formed primarily from draftees, including the 1,486th, 1,008th, and 1,307th. Colonel Marat Ospanov was named the division’s first commander. During his tenure, he rose to the rank of major-general.

In the spring of 2023, soldiers from the 6th Division began complaining about poor service conditions and cruel treatment from their commanders. In one video posted on social media, a group of draftees from the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous District complained that their superiors treated them like “cannon fodder” and had threatened to shoot anyone who spoke out. The soldiers said they had no opportunities to bathe or buy groceries, that they were forced to fight with no food or uniforms, that injured servicemen weren’t evacuated from the battlefield, and that they were not being rotated out. After this complaint, the soldiers’ regiment commander was reportedly replaced, but according to the local news site Muksun, he was only a scapegoat, as the real source of the abuse was Ospanov.

On March 22, 2024, according to Suspilne, the Russian authorities launched a criminal case against Ospanov and his subordinates for alleged abuse of authority, unlawful detention, and murder. A decree published by the Ukrainian outlet bears the signature of Sergey Shishov, a military investigator for the Russian Investigative Committee. Shishov previously led the case against Irek Magasumov, a lieutenant colonel who was convicted of murdering an 18-year-old girl in the occupied Ukrainian city of Luhansk.

The document alleges that in May 2023, around the time soldiers in the division first began complaining publicly, Ospanov ordered his subordinates to illegally detain servicemen who “have violated military discipline, refused to follow orders, or engaged in other misconduct.”

“M. P. Ospanov, in an effort to intimidate and force strict adherence to his orders and maintain military discipline, created an organized group from among his subordinates,” the document reportedly says. According to investigators, Ospanov’s deputy, 44-year-old Colonel Stanislav Ivanisov, was tasked with organizing soldiers’ detention. Another deputy, 41-year-old Yevgeny Malyshko, was put in charge of “killing servicemen who, according to M. P. Ospanov, were beyond reform.”

The officers began detaining soldiers for insubordination on May 11, 2023. Nineteen people are listed as victims in the case. All of these soldiers were allegedly held at various times in basements in the Russian-occupied city of Popasna, with no access to toilets, no means of maintaining hygiene, no beds, and only limited food and water. In early September 2023, military prosecutors released the captive prisoners and the authorities launched an investigation.

Additionally, according to Suspilne, there were eight soldiers who Ospanov deemed “beyond reform.” Only one of them survived: Ilya Borisov, a soldier from the 1,307th regiment who served as a medic in an evacuation unit. In late June, Borisov and five other imprisoned soldiers from the regiment were released ahead of a routine inspection by the Russian Defense Ministry. Borisov was sent to the front line and was subsequently hospitalized due to injuries.

After the Defense Ministry inspection, the rest of the previously imprisoned soldiers were sent back to the basement on Ospanov’s orders. According to the Russian authorities, all of them were “kicked, punched, [and] beaten with various objects and special devices on their faces and bodies.” Investigators reportedly believe the officers later killed these soldiers in an attempt to cover up their illegal detention and torture.

In early July, Ospanov reportedly ordered Malyshko to send seven of the captive soldiers to the front and kill them. Malyshko allegedly enlisted Major Evgeny Boriskin, Warrant Officer Evgeny Chukanov, Senior Warrant Officer Gennady Mury, and Senior Sergeant Roman Timonin to help carry out this order. All of these men are considered suspects in the case.

On the morning of July 4, Chukanov, Boriskin, Malyshko, Timonin, and Mury brought seven soldiers out of the basement in Popasna and transported them to the village of Bakhmutske in the Donetsk region. Boriskin, Chukanov, and Timonin then sent the soldiers into the basement of a private home before detonating “at least five F-1 anti-personnel defensive grenades” in the basement, according to Suspilne. After the bombs went off, Boriskin shot the survivors with a pistol. Timonin and Mury then set the soldiers’ bodies on fire.

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Journalists from Suspilne found mentions of the case against Ospanov and his subordinates on social media but not in the Russian news media. The outlet also found multiple messages from relatives of the murdered soldiers about their family members’ disappearances. Suspilne’s journalists attempted to contact the torture victims and the relatives of the soldiers who were killed, though they did not disclose that they were Ukrainian.

Ilya Borisov did not respond to the journalists’ interview request. His mother promised to pass on their request, but she later stopped responding, as well. Of the 11 soldiers whom military prosecutors freed from the basement in September 2023, Suspilne only managed to speak to one: Ivan Lukyanov, who served in the division’s 307th regiment. “I don’t want to say anything about this. I’m not going to say anything. I’m at the front right now. I don’t want to talk about this. Maybe when it’s all over,” he said.

Raisa Grushetskaya, whose son, Valery Grushetsky, was allegedly killed by his superiors, told Suspilne that she met with an investigator but that he didn’t mention her son’s death. She said she last spoke to her son on May 5, 2023. Later, she was notified that he had gone missing, and on May 8, 2024, she received a death certificate for him.

But I’m still hoping that maybe he’s alive. I hope that maybe he’s still being held captive somewhere. Until they send me his body, until they prove beyond a doubt that it’s him, I’ll be waiting and believing that he’s still alive somewhere. He was mobilized in 2022. And he could have chosen not to go, because he’s raising his daughter alone, but they tricked him from the very start. He was a drill officer here, and went there to serve as a drill officer. He can’t shoot — he’s blind in one eye. He told them that at the enlistment office. They told him, “You don’t need to shoot, we just need someone to work with documents.” He called me and said, “Mom, I’m joining the drill unit.” I told him, “Well, son, go and help.” But they didn’t even let him join the drill unit. They sent him straight to the front line.

Zulfia Galimova, the mother of another murdered soldier, last spoke with her son, Artur Galimov, in June 2023. He told her his unit was in the village of Klishchiivka in the Donetsk region. She later learned about the criminal case against Ospanov and the other officers from the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug’s human rights commissioner. “I called [the commissioner] from time to time. The last time we spoke was in March. She said that they were searching for my son and that the Military Prosecutor’s Office and the Military Investigative Committee were working on it. She said they had arrested [Ospanov],” Galimova told Suspilne.

A correspondent from Suspilne also spoke to Ospanov’s wife. On June 21, when the conversation took place, she said that her husband had been arrested on March 22 and sent for an evaluation in the psychiatric unit of a Donetsk hospital until July 4. According to her, the commander had bruises on his body that suggested the authorities had “pressured” him.

Ospanov’s wife asked Suspilne’s correspondent “who initiated” the outlet’s reporting and where they learned about the case. After learning the information had come from the Russian Investigative Committee, she said, “I find it strange that the Investigative Committee would want this case to be covered in the media and that they’ve ordered this story. They’re making every effort to ensure I don’t say anything publicly. This is a classified case, but you’ve been given permission to write a story about it — I don’t understand.” The general’s wife also confirmed that there are other defendants in the case.