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Question: The Russian Investigative Committee released new data on atrocities committed by the Ukrainian armed forces in the Russkoye Porechnoye (Russian-upon-River) village, Kursk Region. The report, in particular, quotes forensic experts and servicemen as saying of the inhuman cruelty with which civilians were killed. Will Russia demand that these crimes be condemned by international organisations?

Maria Zakharova: The Russian Foreign Ministry has already provided a detailed assessment of these atrocities by the Kiev regime.

Photos and videos were distributed during the briefing, which SHOCKED the journalists.

Correspondents, who had seen a lot, could not believe that such inhuman cruelty, exposing the beastly nature of the terrorist scum, was possible in the 21st century. The information that has emerged, including the fact that Ukrainian Nazis opened fierce fire during the evacuation of killed civilians from the village of Russkoye Porechnoye by Russian troops, is another testament to the criminal nature of the terrorist regime in Kiev.

Obviously, the extremists knew that they were committing a grave crime and tried to destroy evidences.

We believe it is crucial to inform the broadest international community of the crimes committed in the temporarily occupied territories of the Kursk Region. Russian news agencies already possess an exhaustive body of evidence of neo-Nazi punitive operations against civilians protected by a number of international documents including provisions of the binding Fourth Geneva Convention.

Particular focus should be given to a selective nature of persecution of the elderly, the most socially vulnerable members of the occupied population.

The supporting materials distributed by the Russia Investigative Committee clearly show signs of grave offenses committed during the armed conflict: hands bound with duct tapes, traces of torture, bruises from blows, gunshot wounds, bodies of people whose deaths resulted from hours of abuse by perpetrators, evidence of rape and other violent sexual acts.

The Main Military Investigative Directorate of the Russian Investigative Committee has already initiated a criminal case against members of Ukrainian armed units implicated in the terrorist act against civilians in the Kursk Region under Article 205, Part 3, Paragraph (b) of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (Terrorist Act Causing Death to an Individual). A number of Ukrainian servicemen from the 92nd Detached Assault Brigade were found to have been involved in the crimes.

We believe that the bloody nature of the Kiev troops’ actions in the Kursk Region should be widely exposed on international platforms such as the United Nations, the OSCE and their relevant structures, recorded by representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross and become the subject of proceedings by international human rights mechanisms, including NGOs.

We are certain that the real nature of Zelensky’s junta was most clearly manifested in Russkoye Porechnoye, whose name has obviously become one of the driving factors for the Russophobic regime in Kiev and its armed gangs: it is against everything Russian that the current post-Maidan authorities are fighting with support of the “collective West.”

This announcement at the site of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and at their Telegram channel.

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From the Russian Mission to Geneva

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on the atrocities committed by Ukrainian militants in the Kursk Region:
– January 31, 2025

The latest documented atrocities by militants of Ukrainian armed groups were committed in the village of Russkoye Porechnoye, Kursk Region, recently liberated by the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

On January 18, Russian servicemen discovered the bodies of local residents tortured and killed by Ukrainian nationalists in the basements of residential houses in Russkoye Porechnoye. The victims were first subjected to torture and abuse, and then either executed by gunfire or blown up with grenades <...>

Today, we will publish the relevant materials obtained from Russian law enforcement agencies. I warn you in advance that the videos are extremely graphic. However, both videos and photos taken on-site by our military present undeniable evidence of a monstrous, gruesome crime – a total desecration of all that is moral and human.

The mutilated bodies of mostly elderly Russian citizens were found with their hands tied with tape, showing signs of torture, hematomas from beatings, and gunshot wounds <...>

The Main Military Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of Russia has opened a criminal case against members of Ukrainian armed groups involved in the terrorist act against civilians in the Kursk Region under paragraph “b” of part 3 of Article 205 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Terrorist act resulting in the death of a person”).

The preliminary investigation has established the involvement of several Ukrainian servicemen from the 92nd Separate Assault Brigade in this crime. Among them is serviceman Evgeniy Fabrisenko, commander of the 11th company of the 4th battalion, known by the call sign “Kum”, as well as three other soldiers with the call signs “Motyl”, “Provodnik”, and “Khudozhnik”. They are suspected of committing a terrorist act, rape, and acts of sexual violence carried out by a group of persons.

During combat operations in the Sudzha District of the Kursk Region, Yevgeny Fabrisenko was captured by servicemen of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. During interrogation as a suspect, he fully admitted guilt and provided detailed testimony about the grave crimes he committed with his accomplices.

Between September 28 and November 24, 2024, they killed 11 men and 3 women in the village of Russkoye Porechnoye. Additionally, they committed acts of rape and sexual violence against 8 women, whom they later killed. The perpetrators then moved the bodies of the 22 murdered civilians into the basements of private houses in Russkoye Porechnoye <...>

We call on all witnesses and anyone with information about these atrocities committed by the Kiev regime to report it to the Investigative Committee of Russia , which has published contact details for submitting relevant information.

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Reportage from Russian BaZa Telegram channel:

Ukrainian troops massacred, tortured and raped civilians in Russian village – captured soldier (GRAPHIC)
Kiev sent its unit to “cleanse” a small Kursk Region settlement, one of the perpetrators has admitted.

A Ukrainian military unit raped and killed eight women and brutally murdered at least 14 other civilians in the village of Russkoye Porechnoye, a captured Ukrainian soldier has admitted during interrogation by Russian investigators.

Russkoye Porechnoye, a small settlement of around 300 residents, fell under Kiev’s control in August last year during a Western-backed incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region. Russian forces liberated the settlement earlier this month, where they discovered decomposing corpses of civilians stashed in basements throughout the village.

On Friday, the Russian Investigative Committee released new evidence on the massacre, including footage of the interrogation of Yevgeny Fabrisenko, a soldier with the 92nd Separate Assault Brigade. Fabrisenko stated that he was deployed to the village on September 28 alongside his immediate commander and two other soldiers.

According to Fabrisenko, their company commander explicitly ordered them to “cleanse” the village of Russian civilians. The unit remained in Russkoye Porechnoye until October 3, during which they raided homes, raped women, and executed men on sight. Those who resisted were tortured and killed, he admitted.

In several gruesome videos released by the investigators on Friday, Russian troops can be seen inspecting the village and trying to count the heavily-decomposed and mutilated bodies they found in multiple cellars.

Fabrisenko described how he and his comrades raped eight women before forcing them to their knees and shooting them in the back of the head.

The villagers were unable to escape, as the outskirts of the settlement were under the fire control of Ukrainian troops, who shot at anyone attempting to flee, Fabrisenko explained.

In total, the unit killed nearly two dozen civilians, including eight women, eleven men, and three elderly women, he said. Most victims were shot, while six were forced into a basement and killed with a hand grenade by the team’s leader.

Fabrisenko was captured by Russian forces in late November after he got lost while relocating between positions and accidentally ran into a Russian reconnaissance unit.

The Ukrainian serviceman has fully confessed to his crimes and now faces a life sentence on multiple charges, including terrorism and rape.

Moscow has strongly condemned the massacre in Russkoye Porechnoye, with senior officials suggesting the killings could constitute genocide. Earlier this month, the Russian Foreign Ministry said the incident further confirmed the “terrorist and neo-Nazi essence of the Kiev regime.”