Ukraine officials claimed this week that Russian soldiers fleeing the country left behind important military files which suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin was planning to take over the entire country of Ukraine.
On Wednesday, Oleksiy Sukhachev, director of Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigation (DBR) said in a translated statement on Telegram that “DBR investigators have found important documents of the Russian military, which clearly give the understanding that Russia was preparing to seize the entire territory of Ukraine. All this information will be studied and attached to the case file.”
Investigators reportedly discovered the documents while searching the northeastern town of Trostyanets in Sumy Oblast.
“Investigators from the Bureau inspected more than 2,000 hectares of the city actually destroyed by the invaders. The locations of the aggressor’s combat units and the firing positions from which the shelling was carried out have been established. Seized documents and personal belongings of the Russian military,” the statement continued. “Investigating the consequences of artillery and mortar shelling of the city’s infrastructure in the Russian Federation, DBR investigators found intentionally damaged 322 residential buildings and civilian objects in Trostyanets.”
Ukrainian officials also claimed the investigation uncovered locations where Russian forces “tortured civilians.”
“At least 34 cases of unlawful deprivation of liberty and torture of civilians have been reported. Batons, handcuffs, metal ticks and clothes of the victims with traces of blood were found at the crime scene,” the statement read. “Among other things, 29 site inspections were conducted, the bodies of 23 victims, including two children, were exhumed.”
Investigators deactivated multiple explosive devices in Trostyanets, and turned over unused weapons and ammunition to the Ukrainian military.
“The work continues. To ensure proper efficiency, we have recruited the best investigators from among the central office and employees of the Territorial Administration of Poltava and Kramatorsk,” Sukhachev added in a statement.
Meanwhile, the first president of independent Ukraine, Leonid Kravchuk, died at 88-years-old this week.
Kravchuk was president of Ukraine from 1991-94, and Ukrainian media reported that he died following a long illness. In June 2021, the former president had been placed in an intensive care unit due to complications after undergoing heart surgery.
“He was a person always able to find wise words and express them in such a way that they were heard by all Ukrainians,” Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address. “Particularly in times of crisis. When the future of an entire country can depend on the wisdom of one person.”
