The military of the Russian Federation killed two civilians in the Zaporozhye region

Russian military Batraz Slanov allegedly shot two unarmed civilians – 32-year-old Nikolai Khomnikov and 40-year-old Sergei Golubenko – in the occupied village of Novomykhailovka, Berdyansk district, Zaporozhye region, in the fall of 2022. After that, he tried to rape their relative. This is confirmed in the investigation of “Nastoyaschech Vremeny”.

The ASTRA telegram channel and the Kavkaz.Realii website reported on the detention of Slanov back in November 2022, shortly after the murder. Then the names of the alleged victims were also named. A number of Ukrainian mass media wrote about the same. The military’s detention was not officially announced at the time.

Additional details are given in the investigation of “Nastoyaschech Vremena”. One of the Ukrainian special services allegedly gave journalists access to the Telegram messenger of Russian Major General, Chief of Staff of the 58th Combined Arms Army Sergei Medvedev. Journalists of “Nastoyaschego Vremena” claim to have established the authenticity of this correspondence.

On November 25, 2022, General Sergey Medvedev sent a voice message to his compatriot Vitaly Shopage about a certain “bad incident” in the 503rd motorized rifle regiment. The next day, as confirmed, the viceroy sent General Medvedev a document entitled “Report on the murder of two civilians by servicemen of the 503 MSP”.

According to the report, on November 22, 2022, a Russian private driver, Batraz Slanov, in a state of intoxication, went home to residents of Novomykhaylovka, whom he suspected of collaborating with the Ukrainian military, in particular, that they were proofreaders. He took two residents of the village to the forest belt, where “he shot both of them with a shot in the head for refusing to confess,” the report states. After that, he tried to rape a local resident, the wife of one of the killed and the sister of the second, but, being drunk, he fell asleep and the woman ran away.

According to Ukrainian officials, the killed were not correctors.

Batraz Slanov, a native of North Ossetia, as the journalists found out, had previously been tried several times (Kavkaz.Realii was the first to report this back in November 2022). In the database of operational records of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, it is stated that Slanov “was arrested on January 16, 2023 for the murder of two civilian detainees by a military investigation.” His future fate is unknown.

The Russian authorities have not reported any cases of criminal prosecution of the Russian military for crimes against civilians in the occupied territories of Ukraine. According to the prosecutor’s office of the Zaporozhye region, the Ukrainian authorities recorded 45 cases of murder of civilians – residents of the region by the Russian military. Journalists could not get comments from General Medvedev, his deputy Shopag answered them briefly: “You made a mistake.”