Kharkiv region: Russian occupier with accomplices tried to rape a woman, but she managed to escape

During the occupation of Kharkiv region, a Russian commander, along with two other Russian military officers, stopped a car with a married couple and planned to beat the man in order to rape the woman. Prosecutor’s investigators found out about it, and Slidstvo.Info journalists identified the occupier.

In early June 2023, Ukrainian law enforcement officers served a notice of suspicion of violation of the laws and customs of war during the occupation of Kharkiv region on Andriy Bublyev, commander of the airborne assault unit of the 1st Infantry Battalion of the 202nd Infantry Regiment of the 4th Separate Motorised Rifle Brigade of the Russian Army.

Previously, Bublyev’s unit was considered the so-called LPR army (Luhansk People’s Republic, illegal Russian-backed formation in the occupied Luhansk region — transl.), but now it is part of the 8th Combined Arms Army of the Southern District of the Russian Armed Forces.

On 22 August 2022, Andrii Bublyev, with the call sign “Bublik”, was standing at a crossroads in the Savyn village territorial community of Kharkiv region in a uniform and with a machine gun.

Near the village council, the occupier stopped a car with a local couple under the pretext of violating the curfew, which had not yet come.

Bublyev offered the couple to go with them and buy fuel, realising that people under occupation do not have this opportunity. The couple agreed, bought the fuel and were about to go home. However, Bublyev did not let the victims go and began threatening them with a machine gun.

The occupier called two more “colleagues” who were also members of the illegal armed LPR group. The Russian soldier and his accomplices planned to beat the man and rape the woman.

Bublyev hit the unarmed man in the back of the head, making him lose consciousness and fall into the basement. The occupier locked the basement and began to threaten the woman that he and two other Russian servicemen would rape her.

While the occupiers were distracted, the woman managed to run to the gate and hide behind a car. When the two soldiers left, Bublyev grabbed the victim by the hair and dragged her into the house, telling her to lie down on the sofa and take off her clothes. The occupier threatened to shoot her husband if the victim resisted.

Bublyev did not have time to rape the woman, as her husband who managed to get out of the basement entered the room. The “LPR member” told the victim to leave, but not to tell anyone what had happened to her.

The journalists of Slidstvo.Info identified the occupier by his pages on the Russian social network Odnoklassniki.

34-year-old Andriy Bublyev is a native of Baku (Azerbaijan), but the man has Ukrainian citizenship — he is from the Russian-occupied Luhansk region.

The Russian soldier has a young daughter. Andriy presents himself as a loving father.

Bublyev has been actively supporting the occupation of Luhansk and Donetsk regions since 2014, as evidenced by his numerous posts “for Russia and Putin”.

It is likely that the occupier joined the illegal armed LPR group and went to fight for Novorossiya in 2014. His page contains many photos of him in military uniform.

Before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops, Bublyev was actively having fun with his friends and was photographed against the background of a poster for a Russian propaganda film.

The invader’s parents also support the occupation of Luhansk region. The occupier’s father, Ihor Bublyev, posts the flag of the LPR on his page. The mother, Rita Bublyeva (née Barseghyan), is a sincere supporter of Russian dictator Putin. The woman posts that “Putin is the only president who deserves respect”. Bublyeva also spreads propaganda about the people of Donbas and the “junta’s punitive troops”.

The journalists of Slidstvo.Info found the brother of the “LPR-fighter” — Vitaliy Bublyev. It seems that the man also went to fight in the so-called LPR army, but did not succeed in going with Andrii to kill and rape people in Kharkiv region because he died in 2021.

In May 2022, a relative of the occupier, Natasha Karasyova, published a photo of Bublyev in uniform. The “LPR member” in a uniform with a St George’s ribbon poses near a car with the letter “Z”. Shortly afterwards, Bublyev went to the Kharkiv region.

It is currently unknown whether the Russian occupier is still alive. He has not been online for a long time. For his crimes, Andrii Bublyev faces life imprisonment.

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