Five days into the war, a Russian platoon commander and his unit arrived in Motyzhyn, just off the main highway linking western Ukraine to Kyiv. They hid tanks and artillery among the trees, excavated foxholes and commandeered the nearest houses. One became the officers’ quarters, a second a base for jailing, torturing and murdering civilians.
The commander – Oleg Krikunov, 33 – was better known to his troops and victims by the nom de guerre Kaluga. The horrors he allegedly perpetrated and presided over for a month in one small village in Ukraine have been catalogued by officials investigating atrocities carried out by Moscow’s troops, who have designated him a high priority on their list of wanted soldiers.
Ukrainian prosecutors have been flooded with evidence of Russian war crimes. The scale of the abuses was so great, and the crimes so flagrant, that they have already compiled hundreds of dossiers, named dozens of suspects and brought a first successful prosecution.
