Journalists from Radio Liberty have released previously unseen surveillance footage showing Russian soldiers killing 70-year-old Volodymyr Rubailo on Yablunska Street in Kyiv Oblast’s town of Bucha on 4 March 2022.

Source: Ukrainian service of Radio Liberty

Details: The footage shows Russian soldiers first wounding Volodymyr Rubailo with a shot and then, as the man was barely standing, finishing him with a shot to the head.

Soon after, near Volodymyr’s body, which remained on the ground, Russian soldiers began looting a supermarket. They smashed the glass to enter the building. The stolen goods were packed into baskets and bags and loaded onto armoured vehicles. To take more, some even filled trolleys and pushed them down the street to the recently seized homes of Bucha residents.

As previously reported, Russian paratroopers from the 234th Air Assault Regiment from Pskov, specifically a group led by Sergeant Vladimir Borzunov, may be linked to the killing of Volodymyr Rubailo. Radio Liberty identified Borzunov’s unit as the one positioned at the location from which, according to Ukrainian ballistic experts, the fatal shot was fired.

In a phone conversation with a Radio Liberty correspondent, Sergeant Borzunov confirmed that Russian soldiers killed Rubailo but denied his own and his subordinates’ involvement in the execution of the civilian.

For reference: Volodymyr Rubailo was born in 1951 in Bucha, where he also completed his basic education. He served in Soviet forces in the honour guard company at a military unit in East Germany. He and his wife raised two daughters. Before retirement, he worked as a driver at a forestry company in the city of Irpin. He was executed by Russian soldiers on Yablunska Street on 4 March 2022.

Background:

• The Archive Department of Bucha City Council reported that 554 civilians were killed in Bucha during the Russian occupation.
• Forty-three bodies remain unidentified, and 38 civilians from Bucha are still missing. At least 33 men are believed to be in captivity, and one detained civilian died in Russian captivity.
• Russia denies its troops' involvement in the mass killings of civilians in Bucha. The Russian Ministry of Defence claimed that "not a single local resident suffered from any violent actions" while its forces were present in the city, while Russian ruler Vladimir Putin called the mass executions in Bucha "fake news" and a "provocation".

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