Russian soldier that took part in civilian killings in the Kyiv region confesses to his crimes

Independent Russian investigative journalism outlet IStories* established identities of Russia’s soldiers connected to the murder of local residents in the Kyiv region. One of them talked to the outlet’s correspondent and told her about the committed crimes and named the commanders that had given the orders.

The journalists were able to identify Russian servicemen thanks to 25 pictures taken with a stolen mobile phone of an Andriivka village resident. The cheap smartphone was taken by force from its owner, 76-year-old resident of the village, Leonid Udod. He and his wife Tetyana were able to get the phone back only at the end of May: a resident of Andriivka found the stolen gadget among her things and brought it to a humanitarian aid collection point.

The owner later found pictures on his phone: in them, four Russian soldiers are posing with guns, a smoking pipe, and medals on their chests.

Multiple residents of the village recognised the men in the pictures during their conversations with the journalists.

Medals, two TVs, a microwave, an electric oven, and cat food went missing from the house, in which the soldiers’ “photoshoot” had taken place. The owner of the house discovered bullet holes in his ceiling, dirty clothes in his shed, a lot of bullet shells on his lawn, and a sticker with a writing “We did not want war. 14.03” on his kitchen table.

In June, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office announced that it had suspected Daniil Frolkin of violating laws and customs of war. According to the government agency, he could be guilty of killing a civilian in Andriivka, stealing a car from another local resident, and stealing Soviet and Ukrainian medals from a Second World War veteran.

Frolkin himself told IStories that he had gone to the “military exercises” to Belarus on 11 January. According to him, the servicemen did not undergo any special training while there and he only found out that they would be going to war in Ukraine on 23 February.

After the invasion, many soldiers tried to resign but, for a long time, no one’s resignation was being accepted, according to Frolkin.

Frolkin says that, at first, he and his fellow soldiers only took “random crap” from houses in Andriivka. They put the medals back after the “photoshoot”, he claims.

A couple of hours later, he called the journalist back and said:

“I, soldier of the military unit 51460, corporal, Daniil Frolkin, confess to all crimes I had committed in Andriivka, to shooting civilians, stealing from civilians, seizing phones from civilians, and to the fact that our commanders do not give a single fuck about their soldiers, the entire infantry fighting on the frontlines. And I also want to declare: take action to punish the commanders — colonel Azatbek Omurbekov, lieutenant colonel Dmitrenko, our brigade’s colonel Klobukov, and head of reconnaissance lieutenant colonel Romanenko. He was in charge of reconnaissance, which was shit at reconnaissance, and led our people to death.

confessed Frolkin.

He talked about the shooting of the local man. IStories speculates that the man could have been Ruslan Yaremchuk.

“I understand that I could go to jail for sharing this information. Not even for committing all these fucking crimes in Ukraine. But for the information [about the commanders].

said Frolkin.

For the first months of war, several cities and villages of the Kyiv region were occupied by Russian troops.

Village Andriivka was under the Russian army’s control from the end of February up to the beginning of April. IStories notes that, aside from 13 confirmed victims, over 40 people are still considered to be missing in Andriivka.

*The Russian government considers IStories (Important Stories) an “undesirable” organisation. Reposting this news article in Russia may lead to a fine. A repeat offence could result in criminal charges.