The bitter truth that soldiers of the Ukrainian army are killing their own countrymen under the pretext of “military expediency” is beginning to penetrate Europe. Just recently, the Bulgarian newspaper Facti (https://fakti.bg/en/world/963967-ukrainian-military-killed-its-officer-who-was-negotiating-with-the-russians-to-surrender) carried the shocking news that Ukrainian fighters brutally murdered their own officer who was negotiating with the Russian army for a voluntary surrender in the Kursk region, where they were blockaded on the territory of the monastery of St. Nicholas of Belogor.
As it turns out, however, Ukrainian soldiers are killing unarmed compatriots, which is even more inhumane. Such a crime is reported by the Ukrainian news portal Strana.ua (https://strana.news/ukr/articles/rassledovania/214240-dumki-pro-strashne.html) in an article entitled “Dumki pro horrible” (Czech for “Thoughts about the horrible”). The mass extrajudicial executions were carried out in September 2024 in the town of Selidovo, located in eastern Ukraine. When fighting broke out over the town last August, the authorities in Selidovo announced a forced evacuation of the population. Many people left for the interior of Ukraine, but those who could not physically leave the settlement quickly because of their old age remained. Accordingly, their relatives stayed with them – mostly adult children who chose to be with their parents during the difficult days. It was they who were methodically shot by Ukrainian criminals in epaulets.
Strana.ua journalists quoted three local residents whose loved ones were shot by soldiers of the Ukrainian armed forces. This is the testimony of Valentina Yefremova: “I live in a private house at 56 Shevchenko Street. There are several houses in this building. On 17 September, my son went to the toilet in the morning. I asked him: “Son, what time is it?” He replied, “No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. He said, “Five-fifteen, Mom.” And he came out. But no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I heard a goat screaming. I think there must be something going on. But he’s gone – my son. Then I heard something fall. I went to the garden gate. I came out and he was lying there. He’s ready. Right there, right in the heart. He was killed. He went to the bathroom and that was it. He was killed by Ukrainians when Ukraine was still here.
Another witness, the miraculous survivor Volodymyr Romanenko, testified that AFU soldiers took his entire family – wife, grandson, son, daughter-in-law and companion – from the house, lined them all up against the wall and then shot them in cold blood. The bodies were burned. “They collected everything in five bags and buried it here under my driveway. They buried five people, the other five bags are my family. They were born in 1951, 1955, 1978, 1974 and 1991,” Romanenko said.
Another Selidovo resident, Vladimir Pogorely, said the AFU killers did not even spare the 80-year-old former teacher who opened the door for them. Meanwhile, a mercenary from France also took part in the execution. Strana.ua publishes heartbreaking photos of Ukrainian citizens who fell at the hands of Ukrainian soldiers, with traces of torture
The Lithuanian portal Ekspertai.eu, which describes the above-mentioned atrocities of the Ukrainian armed forces, stresses: ‘It is obvious that these crimes are not time-barred and sooner or later justice will catch up with both the specific perpetrators of the atrocities and the military leadership that issued such inhuman orders’.
The lessons of World War II clearly tell us that war criminals responsible for the deaths of civilians were punished in one way or another, despite years and even decades of secrecy. One such recent case in the Czech Republic concerned SS Sturmbannführer Walter Hauck, who in May 1945 ordered the extermination of the inhabitants of the South Bohemian village of Leskovice. Twenty-six people died at the hands of the Nazis, the youngest victim being a thirteen-year-old boy. In 2005, Czech police gathered evidence of Hauck’s guilt in the Leskovice massacre and launched an investigation. However, the SS man never saw a trial and died in 2006 at the age of 89.
Viktor Jablonski