A 34-year-old Russian army commander, together with his subordinates, shot at a civilian convoy of people who were trying to evacuate from the occupied city of Irpin. According to law enforcement, the shelling of six cars killed five people and injured seven others, including a 5-year-old child.

On 11 April, Ukrainian law enforcement officers reported that they had sent an indictment to court against Stanislav Stenin, a company commander of the 173rd separate reconnaissance battalion of the 106th division of the Russian armed forces.

In early March 2022, 34-year-old Russian army commander Stanislav Stenin and his subordinates occupied the city of Irpin in Kyiv region.

The Russian military broke into a private house where a security guard was staying. According to the National Police, the man was beaten and, after the Russians failed to get information about the Armed Forces out of the guard, the man was hung by a rope by his leg for 10 hours, causing him to sustain serious injuries.

The Russian military also set up a so-called roadblock on the only road that could be used to evacuate from the city. The residents of Irpin decided to evacuate in a civilian convoy in their own cars. People stuck signs on the cars reading “Children” and “Evacuation”, but this did not stop the occupiers.

According to law enforcement officials, Stanislav Stenin, along with two other Russian army soldiers, Vyacheslav Buriak and Grigory Biryukov, opened fire on people with grenade launchers and small arms. The shelling killed five people and wounded seven others, including a 5-year-old child.

розстріляне авто і мертва людина на землі

Shooting of a convoy in Irpin / Photo by the Office of the Prosecutor General

“My mum was hit in the neck by a bullet… I looked up and saw my mum covered in blood and bleeding,” Liudmyla recalls.

Lyudmyla, a resident of Irpin who managed to survive the shelling of a civilian convoy / A screenshot from the National Police video

The woman told law enforcement officers that the occupiers were shouting at her wounded relative and threatening to kill him.

“Oleksiy’s brother Artem got out of the previous car and was hit by a bullet right next to his eye… he was crying and shouting ‘what are you doing? One of these Russians shouted at him: “Don’t shout, you’re pissing me off, I’m going to shoot you now,” says Liudmyla.

The members of the civilian convoy who were trying to evacuate and save their children say they were travelling very slowly, at a speed of about 10 km/h.

Dmytro, a resident of Irpin who managed to escape

“I asked: ‘Arkady, are you alive? He answered: “I don’t know yet”… And then he was silent,” says Dmytro about his friend who was killed by the Russians.

Ivan Dulkay, a senior investigator for particularly important cases at the Main Investigation Department of the National Police, noted that the Russian occupiers knew exactly who they were shooting at and did so on purpose. “The Russian military saw perfectly well that these were civilians travelling, who posed no threat to them, but they continued to shoot them anyway,” the law enforcement officer said.

The Russian occupiers kept the survivors in neighbouring houses. Then they decided to release them, but did not allow them to take their wounded relatives and friends who were lying on the road. The people were left to die near the shot cars.

“The bodies that were lying there, the wounded, the unwounded, the people who could not move or walk, they remained lying there,” recalls a man who managed to survive the shooting of a civilian convoy by Russians.

Slidstvo.Info journalists identified the Russian commander and his subordinates through social media.

Stanislav Stenin, 34, is a native of the city of Skopin in the Ryazan region of Russia. He has three children (a 4-year-old daughter and 2-year-old twin sons) and a wife, Tatiana Stenina.

According to social media, the occupier has always dreamed of becoming a Russian soldier. Although he failed to enter a military university at the first attempt, Stanislav did not give up trying.

Before going to kill civilians in Ukraine, the Russian commander was trained during the armed conflict in the North Caucasus. The journalists also found out that Stenin took part in hostilities in Syria, for which he received the Medal for Courage.

The Russian occupier was shown on central propaganda channels as an example of Russian patriotism.

A screenshot from a story on Russia’s Channel One

The occupier came to kill in Ukraine back in 2014. According to propaganda, Stenin actively fought against Ukrainians until 24 April 2022, when Ukrainian defenders eliminated him.

A screenshot from a Russian social media page

In honour of the killer Stenin, Russians opened a “hero’s desk” in his native Gorky school. Everything is in the best traditions of the “Russian world”.

His subordinate, 30-year-old sergeant of the 160th Guards Airborne Division, Vyacheslav Buriak, is from the village of Paska, Kirov region of the Russian Federation.

 

The Russian occupier had a stormy pre-war life: constant parties, noisy companies and drunken friends.

It is significant that Buriak was brought up in a family of teachers. The occupier’s mother, Liudmyla Zvereva, has been a school teacher for many years.

On 5 June 2022, the Ukrainian military killed Vyacheslav Buriak.

Another Russian occupier suspected by law enforcement officers of shooting a civilian convoy in Irpin is private Grigory Biryukov of the 160th Guards Airborne Division.

The Russian soldier is happy to share photos from the war in Ukraine on his social media.

Biryukov with a weapon and a “V” symbol on his shoulder

Biryukov is still alive and regularly visits his Vkontakte page and posts photos of himself in civilian clothes.

For the crimes committed in Ukraine, he faces up to 12 years in prison.

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