Russian invaders mired in looting, plundering temples - intercepts
In a series of intercepted calls made by Russian soldiers that are part of the invasion forces, it is revealed that they brag to their families about the scale of the war crimes committed by their comrades-in-arms.
The tapes were provided to Guildhall by a source in Ukrainian intelligence, Ukrinform reports.
A serviceman, allegedly with the 810th Separate Marine Brigade of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, tells his wife living in the occupied Crimea about the looting of Mariupol: “I’ve already collected so many gifts I’ll give you upon my return – tablets, phones, watches, jewelry, and a laptop.”
Another soldier, with the 14th Separate Specops Brigade of Russia’s military intelligence (Military Unit 74854), who is deployed outside Izium, Kharkiv region, is heard telling his mother about the looting of a warehouse run by the Leroy Merlin chain of hardware stores near Kyiv: “Remember, I told you back when we were in that other place, there was a Leroy Merlin warehouse there. In the very first days, we would grab whatever we needed there. Our gunners got me a triple tent and also a single tent. They broke into that place, started looting that warehouse: they got loads of wet wipes, all sorts of stuff in there: tools, chainsaws... There was also a motorboat, but they didn’t take it. Everyone got what they needed."
Russian soldiers are not hiding the fact that their army is robbing the civilian population of Ukraine.
A serviceman with one of the units of the Russian Army’s Western Military District, who goes by the name of Danil, at the time of his stay near the village of Zavorychi outside Kyiv on March 23, tells his St. Petersburg-based friend over the phone: “We’re well-off here: we got lamb here, all these cottages, shops – it’s all ours. All that people have here is ours, we just take it as we wish: cars, whatever.
On March 20, a serviceman of the Russian Armed Forces, who was deployed in Ukraine’s Polissia area, tells his friend in Russia, Major I. Gotovtsev: “We eat pigs here. We’ve eaten pretty much everything here, including chickens.
In late March, Russian military serviceman Viktor Korobeinikov had a phone call with his wife, also serving at one of the Russian army units stationed near Mariupol: “They just grab people’s cars there. The locals’ cars. They are driving them out of Mariupol, the ones that are not hit, and they’re also looting the villages around the city.”
Another military serviceman who is part of a unit with the Russian Army’s Western Military District, stationed near Izium, tells his wife living in Smolensk region: “We loot the area, going door to door. We get no supplies here. Whatever is delivered, or rear officers demand bribes to distribute it. I traded a mink coat for a pack of cigarettes last week.”
A particularly “pious” war criminal with the 9th Artillery Brigade of the Russian Army’s Western Military District, who was stationed near Kharkiv, boasts to his mother, Irina Viktorovna Stepanova, that he stole the icon from a local church: “I took the icon from the church for Nastia. It’s Mother of God with Jesus Christ. I took it. It has rhinestones in it. Looking like diamonds, really beautiful.
Parents and friends of Russian marauders rejoice at the stories told and even instruct them as to further action. Aleksey, a serviceman with the Russian Armed Forces, deployed in Ukraine, supposedly near Mariupol, is taking an “order from a friend, whose name is Ivan:
- Listen, can I ask you for a favor? I need a phone and a laptop, too. Or perhaps they have these robotic vacuum cleaners…
- Alright, I get it. If I find something, I'll get you this.