Ukraine's National Police has reported that it has served notices of suspicion on Russian soldiers involved in crimes in Bucha. On 23 or 24 March 2022, around 13:00, during the temporary occupation of Kyiv Oblast, the invaders brought a 34-year-old civilian woman to Vokzalna Street, where five Russian soldiers were based at the time, and raped her.
Their actions grossly violated the Geneva Convention on the protection of civilians in wartime and Additional Protocol I. Under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, rape or any other form of sexual violence in conditions of international armed conflict is a war crime.
What the investigation established
The investigation identified two of the men as the direct perpetrators of the sexual violence. One of them is Radii Zaburin, and the other is Radii Zaburin. They took the woman into a bathhouse, where, using physical force against her, they raped her in turn, the investigation established.
When the woman tried to escape, Monakhov opened fire at her, and she died of her wounds, per the police. An indictment on the fact of the murder is already before the court. Both men are suspected of cruel treatment of the civilian population under Part 1 of Article 438 of Ukraine's Criminal Code, on the violation of the laws and customs of war.
Who the two soldiers are
Both of the Russian soldiers served in the 234th Air Assault Regiment of the 76th Air Assault Division of the Airborne Forces of the Russian Armed Forces, military unit No. 74268, according to the dossiers published by the Book of Executioners of the Ukrainian People, a Ukrainian registry documenting Russian war crimes.
Radii Zaburin, born 2 October 1995 in Usolye-Sibirskoye, Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, held the position of senior mechanic-driver in the artillery unit at the time of the crime, with the rank of junior sergeant, per the registry.
Denis Monakhov, born 11 November 1997 in the village of Palkino, Pskov Oblast, Russia, was deputy commander of a self-propelled artillery platoon and commander of a 2S9 "Nona-S" self-propelled gun, with the rank of sergeant. During the investigation, the two were identified as the direct perpetrators of the sexual violence.
The case is one of hundreds Ukraine is documenting
The Bucha charges are part of a vast accounting Ukraine is building for conflict-related sexual violence. Ukraine's Office of the Prosecutor General has verified 365 cases of conflict-related sexual violence since 2022, involving survivors aged four to 80, and 19 Russian soldiers have been convicted in absentia for such crimes. UN monitors estimate that for each reported case, 10 to 20 go unreported.
Bucha holds a specific place in that record. The town became the emblem of Russian atrocities before Ukrainian forces retook it in early April 2022, revealing executed civilians in the streets and numerous cases of sexual violence. Naming Zaburin and Monakhov adds two documented perpetrators to a case file Ukraine is assembling for the day these charges can be brought in a courtroom rather than in absentia. The indictment for the murder is already before a court; the two men are reportedly in Russia, beyond Ukraine's reach for now, but the record of what they did in a bathhouse on Vokzalna Street in March 2022 is now on the books under their names.
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