Ukraine has issued a notice of suspicion against a Russian military commander in connection with killings in Bucha, marking what prosecutors call the first time a commander has been formally implicated in the 2022 atrocities that left more than 450 bodies in the Kyiv suburb.
Lieutenant Yurii Vladimirovich Kim, a platoon commander in the 76th Air Assault Division's 234th Assault Regiment, is suspected of criminal responsibility for 17 killings and four instances of ill-treatment committed by forces under his command, according to Global Rights Compliance, an international law foundation assisting Ukraine.
"The notice of suspicion served to a commander of a unit of the Russian Armed Forces marks a fundamentally important step towards justice for the systematic and large-scale war crimes committed in Bucha," Ukrainian Deputy Prosecutor General Andrii Leshchenko said in a statement, according to Reuters.
Russian forces occupied Bucha for a month at the start of the full-scale invasion before withdrawing in late March 2022, leaving bodies in streets and mass graves. Hundreds more were killed in the wider area, Ukrainian officials reported. The Kremlin has called the Bucha events "a set-up and a fake."
Kim, born in 1997 and a native of Moscow Oblast, is not in Ukrainian custody, said Jeremy Pizzi, legal advisor at Global Rights Compliance. Russia's defense ministry did not respond to questions about the case, and Reuters was unable to reach Kim directly.
The investigation relied on witness testimonies, crime scene forensics and open-source intelligence, according to the foundation. "Kim specifically ordered his forces to hunt, harm, and kill individuals perceived as supporting or assisting Ukrainian armed or security forces," Global Rights Compliance said, citing the evidence gathered. "After the civilian killings had taken place, evidence shows the commander ordered his subordinates to burn some of the bodies to conceal the crime."
Ukrainian prosecutors have previously issued notices of suspicion for dozens of Russian soldiers in the Bucha case, but investigators say Kim's case represents a shift toward establishing command responsibility. "We have moved beyond bringing low-ranking perpetrators to account — now we are uncovering the chain of command decisions through which ordinary orders turned into mass executions of civilians," said Maksym Tsutskiridze, first deputy head of the National Police and head of the Investigation Department.
Ukraine's Main Directorate of Intelligence has identified four additional Russian soldiers from the same unit charged with executing the 17 civilians. Working with the National Police, the agency published names and personal data for Private Yevgenii Meshalkin, born in 2001, a shooter-operator from Tyumen region; Senior Sergeant Anatolii Pavlov, born in 1990, a gun commander from Chuvashia who lives in Pskov; Senior Sergeant Shamil Hasanhuliev, a squad commander from Pskov; and Senior Soldier Pavlo Kretinin, born in 1985, a deputy platoon commander from Voronezh region who lives in Pskov.
The intelligence directorate reported that "the indicated persons are involved in murders, torture, attempts to conceal war crimes by burning the bodies of executed Bucha residents, as well as threats to the civilian population during the Russian occupation of the city."
Global Rights Compliance said the evidence uncovered in the case suggested a systematic plan that implied involvement by the Russian leadership and could serve as a foundation for further investigations into the chain of command. A Reuters investigation published in May 2022 highlighted the role of the 76th Air Assault Division, among other units, in events in Bucha.
Ukrainian intelligence separately reported on 23 October that it eliminated Russian paratroopers of the 247th Caucasian Cossack Regiment in Stavropol, a unit implicated in war crimes during the invasion. On 27 October, reconnaissance forces struck Russian positions on the Zaporizhzhia front, killing the son of Lieutenant General Arkadii Marzoev, who is implicated in war crimes in Kherson, according to the intelligence directorate.
