Circumstances surrounding killing of five Ukrainian soldiers by Russian occupier in village near Kharkiv have been established
SSU investigators served a notice of suspicion to Leonid Ryzhikov, a soldier in the 1009th Motorized Rifle Regiment of the 68th Division of the Russian Armed Forces, who on October 13 killed five Ukrainian soldiers and one civilian and attempted to hide in Kharkiv. The circumstances of this crime are noteworthy; my company is also operating in this very area.
According to a press release from the SSU, the attack on the soldiers was carried out by a Russian soldier from the assault company of the 1009th Motorised Rifle Regiment of the Russian Armed Forces. According to the killer, he and another soldier had been sent to storm Ukrainian positions near the village of Starytsia; a firefight broke out in the forest, and his partner surrendered. But Ryzhikov pressed on alone. He managed to bypass the positions of the 72nd Brigade unnoticed, avoiding combat, and penetrate deep into our rear; he marched in a straight line for at least 25 km.
Photo: Leonid Ryzhikov / Photo provided by UP’s sources in law enforcement agencies
Ryzhikov had no special military training and was not a saboteur; he is a former Russian convict, in reasonably good health and young – aged 36 – who was forced to sign up whilst in a Russian prison, where he was serving an eight-year sentence for causing grievous bodily harm and theft.
On 13 October, the killer encountered a 60-year-old local resident who was fishing by a pond in the Lypets community. Ryzhikov killed him immediately.
He then made his way to the village of Mykhailivka, where, at around 4.00 pm, he entered the nearest house unhindered. Five soldiers from the 72nd Brigade were resting on the ground floor of the house. Ryzhikov shot four of them on the ground floor and the fifth on the stairs leading to the first floor.
Soldiers from the 72nd Brigade heard the gunshots and rushed to their aid, but the killer quickly fled the scene of the crime. He hid his assault rifle and decided to go into hiding in Kharkiv, hoping to pass himself off as someone who had lost their documents.
Immediately after the circumstances of the attack were established, the command of the ‘Khartiia’ Corps launched a search operation. Roads were blocked, checkpoints and patrols were set up, and drones took to the air. As a result, operators from the 72nd Brigade spotted a suspicious individual who was moving not towards the front line but towards Kharkiv, and who had crossed the motorway near the village of Tsyrkuny. Soldiers from the 1st Battalion of the 13th ‘Khartiia’ Brigade combed the area and apprehended the killer.
What can be said about the causes?
The conditions for this tragedy had been building up for a long time. Russian assault groups try to break through every day; every day they are killed, but one of them managed to get through.
The renowned 72nd Mechanised Brigade has been engaged in heavy fighting for a long time, but has received no significant reinforcements. Troops have been holding their positions for months, are exhausted, and there is a shortage of personnel; it is therefore hardly surprising that, in one section, an enemy soldier managed to find a gap and break through the defensive lines.
All those killed in the house were worthy, experienced fighters who had been working almost non-stop, as they are not being allocated any reinforcements. It is therefore hardly surprising that during the day, people were sleeping in the house, which was quite a distance from the front line.
I hope this tragedy will elicit an appropriate response from the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Mykhailo Drapatyi.
It is customary here to send more reinforcements and reserves to those sectors where the defence is collapsing and everything is falling apart. But in places where people are doing their utmost not to retreat, to hold their ground, it is assumed that nothing serious is happening, so there is no need for reinforcements – until things start to fall apart there too. This is the bitter consequence of such an approach.
I hope the murderer Ryzhikov will not be included in any prisoner exchanges. And for the deaths of their comrades, the Ukrainians will make the 1009th Regiment pay a hundredfold; the assault groups there have already been completely wiped out three times, yet the enemy continues to reinforce its ranks and advance.
This is also an important lesson — in the frontline zone, one must always be aware that the enemy may be nearby and act accordingly.
Eternal glory and remembrance to the fallen Ukrainian heroes.
