Marta Gichko

16:15, 18.12.23

The occupier asks for political asylum and promises to testify about high-ranking officials of the Russian Federation.

Former officer of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Russian Federation and senior instructor of the PMC “Wagner” flew to Amsterdam and asked for political asylum in the Netherlands.

The Russian human rights project Gulagu.net published a photo of the confession of an ex-silovik. As the document shows, the ex-GRU officer expressed his readiness to appear before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague and testify regarding Russian war crimes in 2014-2015 and 2022, including shelling of Donetsk in order to incite the population against the Armed Forces of Ukraine.< /span>

“Testimony of war crimes has been transferred to the Office of the Prosecutor and investigators of the International Criminal Court,” the statement said.

The Colonel is ready to speak

The name of the Russian is not disclosed, but they note that the ex-officer had the rank of colonel and held the position of “chief” of the so-called 4th department of the Special Operations Directorate of the “Prosecutor General’s Office of the DPR.” He is ready to testify against such persons as:

• ideologist of the “Novorossiya” project Vladislav Surkov;
• Deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Alexander Boroday;
• commander of the 10th special forces brigade of the Main Directorate General Staff (military unit 51532), Major General Sergei Svid (call sign “Ryazan”, curator of “Reduta” and “Wagner”);
• PMC “Wagner” and other high-ranking employees of the FSB and the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation who oversaw the “special operations” in Ukraine in 2014-2015 and in 2022.

“I voluntarily put myself in the hands of international justice, I want to cleanse my soul and tell the international investigation and court the facts of corruption, military aggression, crimes known to me, and reveal Putin’s illegal schemes for the invasion of Ukraine in 2014. “I am ready to answer for what I have done, but I ask for international protection for my family, because in my homeland, for my civil position, I will face extrajudicial execution or blackmail due to threats to my family for refusing to testify to an independent court,” the confession states.

The Russians stated in the document that for more than a year they provided the founder of Gulagu.net, Vladimir Osechkin, with data for the formation of material in the ICC and the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine.

Former high-ranking Wagner instructor and the ex-GRU officer admitted that Prigozhin’s right hand at the Wagner PMC Dmitry Utkin personally gave orders for executions and reprisals against civilians in Ukraine and Syria. He called this “orders from Prigozhin, carrying out Putin’s will.”

The author of the confession in 2014 took part in the “first invasion of Ukraine”, commanding the defense group of the “DPR Premier” Boroday, who acted on behalf of the Putin administration, “personally from Vladislav Surkov.”

“We unwittingly became accomplices in an organized coup in part of Ukraine, which was led by the Russian Presidential Administration,” the ex-officer wrote.

He claims to have witnessed a “terrible falsification” at all “referendums” in the occupied territories and an indirect witness to the “bloody denouement” at Donetsk airport in May 2014, when Borodai, SBU collaborator Alexander Khodakovsky and their assistants “killed a lot of people” so that Moscow would quickly allocate money and weapons.

“The Kremlin ordered more casualties and necessarily military action under the guise of a ‘people’s liberation movement,’” said a Russian security official.

The author of the confession also writes that the DPR militants They themselves shelled Donetsk in order to disrupt Minsk-2. and destabilize the consciousness of the civilian population of Donetsk against the forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

War and crime

According to him, in 2021 and 2022, the FSB prepared the DRG for operations on the territory of Ukraine near the “LDPR” in order to destabilize the situation in ORDLO and blame Ukraine for this.

It was on the basis of these units that battalion tactical groups were formed that invaded Ukraine in February 2022. The ex-officer was the head of intelligence of the 2nd detachment. While performing “tasks” from the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation in Ukraine “repeatedly saw violations of Article 4 of the Geneva Convention in relation to the civilian population,” in particular cruelty to prisoners of war and their murder or the removal of children without parents to Belarus.

“At the end of March, in the area of ​​​​the cities of Gostomel – Bucha, I received an order from counterintelligence officers to shoot five people whom we were holding captive and whom the FSB presented as saboteurs, although they were all residents of nearby villages. I did not comply with the order and released the people, thereby exposing myself to persecution under a military order,” said the occupier.

The Russian is ready to provide more detailed testimony to the International Criminal Court. He signed the statement with his own hand, noting that he was doing this voluntarily without pressure or coercion.

Russian war crimes 

Russian military on heavy equipment entered Bucha on the morning of February 27, 2022. On the same day, mayor Anatoly Fedoruk reported the first deaths.  

On March 31, 2022, the Armed Forces of Ukraine liberated Bucha from Russian occupation.

After the de-occupation of the territories of the Kiev region, the terrible crimes of the Russian military against Ukrainian civilians became known. Mass graves containing hundreds of local residents were discovered in Bucha. At the same time, signs of violent death were found on the bodies of the dead. In addition, the corpses of shot residents, including women, lay on the streets of Bucha. The occupiers tried to burn many of the dead. 

(C)UNIAN 2023