Two Russian soldiers have been arrested on suspicion of killing a family of nine, including two young children, in their home in the Russian-occupied eastern Ukrainian town of Volnovakha.
Russian media reported that the killings took place last Friday night and the suspects had used machine guns with silencers to kill the family at night in their sleep.
It is the first known case of Russia arresting its own soldiers on suspicion of killing Ukrainian civilians since it invaded in 2022, despite ample evidence collected by independent human rights groups, journalists and the UN showing that Russian soldiers have systematically committed war crimes during their invasion of Ukraine.
Russian prosecutors said the two soldiers detained came from Russia’s far east and that the reason for the killings appeared to be a “domestic conflict”.
Graphic photographs circulating online of the aftermath of the killings showed blood-splattered and bullet-riddled bodies in beds, some of them still locked in an embrace.
Ukrainian officials have previously said they believe Russian soldiers killed all members of the Kapkanets family on 27 October for refusing to give them their house. The Ukrainian government said in a statement it had also begun investigating the crime.
Astra, an independent Russian news channel on Telegram, quoted the victims’ neighbours in Volnovakha, who blamed Russian soldiers for the killings.
“All of the neighbours are saying that the killers were in the military … We’re all scared,” one neighbour told Astra.
Russia captured the industrial town of Volnovakha shortly after the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The Kremlin denies targeting civilians.
Vladimir Putin has previously awarded a brigade that has been accused of committing war crimes in Bucha with the honorary title of “guards” and praised the unit for its “great heroism and courage”.
Moscow has also sought to prevent soldiers from speaking out. Last year, a Russian soldier who confessed in an interview to killing a civilian in Ukraine was given a five-and-a-half-year suspended jail sentence by a military court in Russia’s far east on charges of spreading “fake news” about the army.
