Russia accuses Ukrainian soldiers of killing 22 people and raping several women in an occupied border village

Moscow on Friday accused Ukrainian forces of killing 22 people in an occupied Russian village, including eight women who were raped and then murdered, a Russian investigative committee said.

Ukraine has controlled dozens of border villages in the Kursk region of western Russia since launching a surprise offensive in August.

Kyiv says about 2,000 civilians still live in areas occupied by its forces.

Russia has so far regained control of several towns in this region.

Russia’s Investigative Committee said on January 19 that it was investigating the killing of at least seven civilians in the village of Russkoye Borishnoye, 20 km from the Ukrainian border.

It said on Friday that it was currently investigating the killing of 22 citizens between September and November.

Among the victims whose bodies were found in the basements of several homes were eight women who the committee says were raped before being killed.

Russian investigators said five Ukrainian soldiers carried out the killings and that one of them, Yevgeny Fabricenko, was captured during fighting in the Kursk region.

The committee published a video of the interrogation of a man it said was Fabricenko, who made a confession.

“The Russian authorities are trying to hide the deaths of their own citizens, who they are bombing with artillery and killing with aircraft, by destroying their homes and blaming the Ukrainian forces for it,” Oleksiy Dmytrashkivsky, a Ukrainian spokesman in the Kursk region said.

For his part, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused the international community of ignoring Russia.

“This should be talked about and shown despite the international community’s indifference and unwillingness to pay attention to such atrocities,” he told reporters.

In turn, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a press briefing on Friday that the actions of Ukrainian soldiers reflect their military and political impotence at a time of defeats on the front.

“First, people were tortured and abused, then they were killed, either by shooting or by blowing them up,” she added.

Russia and Ukraine have traded accusations of killing civilians since the conflict began nearly three years ago.