A few days later she entered the village school, where she works as a deputy principal, and discovered that the Russians had taken most of the computers, projectors and other electronic equipment. In the director’s office, an open pair of scissors had been placed on a plasma screen that had been left behind, apparently in an attempt to ensure that what could not be stolen was destroyed. “People just saw them loading everything into Ural trucks, whatever they could get their hands on,” Samson said, shaking her head in disbelief. A dozen houses on the main street of the village had been looted, as had all the shops. Other villagers reported missing washing machines, food, laptops and even a sofa. Occupation soldiers are accused of systematically stealing items from Ukrainian homes. Photo: Sviatoslav Medyk Last week, during a report from several places where Russian troops had occupied Ukrainian territory, the Guardian gathered evidence to suggest that looting by Russian forces was not just a case of a few paramilitary soldiers, but a systematic part of the Russian military behavior. many cities and villages. Reports of looting have sparked widespread outrage among Ukrainians, as well as among Russians opposed to the war. “Those who fight like this are not a regular army, but a bastard,” wrote Vladimir Pastukhov, a liberal Russian political scientist who writes for Novaya Gazeta. “Even in the Soviet and Nazi armies, looting was fought as much as possible, though not always successfully. In the Russian army… is a form of additional personnel motivation “. In an apartment in Irpin, a city outside Kyiv that had been partially controlled by Russian forces for part of the past month, a family returned home to find Russian soldiers living there. They found discarded bottles of alcohol, food wrappers and cigarette butts scattered around the apartment, large piles of feces closing the toilets and family photos torn and thrown around the house. They also found that many things were lost. “They took all the clothes – literally everything, men’s and women’s coats, boots, shirts, jackets, even my dresses and underwear,” said one resident, who asked not to use the family names, but gave photos the damage. Video appears to show Russian troops sending home items looted by Ukraine – video According to Hajun, a Belarusian media research program, more than 128 parcels – totaling almost 3,000 kilograms of cargo – were sent to Rubtsovsk alone from the Belarusian border town of Mazyr in a video shot on April 2 this month. Rubtsovsk, located in the southern Altai Krai region of Russia, is a poor city known for its four prisons. Package data was collected during a three-hour surveillance video showing Russian soldiers wrapping and stuffing clothes, televisions, tools, fishing tackle, car batteries and other household items in packages before being shipped to Siberia or even Russia. cities near the Pacific Ocean. In the surveillance video, tired soldiers joke with other customers as they mingle in the cramped office for hours, laughing as a soldier enters with a looted e-scooter to send him back to Russia. Hajun released the data of 16 Russian soldiers who had sent parcels back to Russia on April 2 from the offices of CDEK, a Russian express delivery company operating throughout the former Soviet Union. The influx of looted goods, as well as the growing attention to Russian looting in Ukraine, led the company to start demanding a sales invoice or a check from a store to send goods abroad. While some Ukrainian houses have been looted by Russian soldiers, others have also been used as homes. Photo: Sviatoslav Medyk Hajun recognized Evgeny Kovalenko as the soldier who sent the most cargo that day: 17 parcels weighing a total of 440 kilograms. According to Hajun, this included tools, speakers, a table and a tent. The Guardian tried to contact several of the soldiers accused of looting, without success. Russian sociologist Alexandra Arkhipova said it was not just poverty and material shortages among the soldiers that led to the widespread looting. “Many Russian soldiers believe that this war is completely useless and irrational. It’s an absurd war and they live in Ukraine with an immediate risk of being killed ρα So [they think]”I will get this computer because my child needs a computer back home.” “It makes an absurd situation less irrational and more practical,” he said. However, this does not explain the disaster that accompanied the looting. Many people have found their homes or businesses distorted with pro-Russian graffiti. In the city of Trostanyets, soldiers stained the walls of a butcher shop that they also looted. Many houses seem to have been ostentatiously demolished. Often the victims are people living modest lives who now have nothing. A pack of Russian army and a soldier sleeping mattress, left behind at a school in Novyi Bykiv. Photo: Sviatoslav Medyk In the village of Staryi Bykiv, east of Kiev, the Andrusha family is primarily concerned about the whereabouts of their daughter, Viktoria, who was abducted by Russian soldiers on March 26 on suspicion of supplying Russian authorities with Russian coordinates. He was held for a day with other detainees before disappearing, and has not appeared since. But in an additional insult, her father, Mykola Andrusha, reported that soldiers had robbed the family during searches of their home, taking electronic items and cash. “I am not a rich man. We had about $ 3,000 and about $ 60,000 hryvnia (1.6 1,600). But for me, that was a lot of money. “We wanted to do house repairs – me, my wife and my daughter,” he said. The soldiers also took the family laptop and cell phones. The confirmation of the widespread looting was preceded by a phone call leaked by the Ukrainian intelligence service, which claimed to have revealed Russian soldiers discussing with their wives what to steal while on mission. The authenticity of the interceptions could not be confirmed, but reports from the liberated areas have given them credibility. “I bet all the boys got something there,” a wife told her husband in one of the leaked phone calls. “I bet you are not alone.” “Everyone has a bag with him,” the soldier replied.
