Residents of the self-proclaimed “People’s Republics” of Lugansk and Donetsk complain to the Russian prosecution that, since the beginning of a large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian military has been ruthlessly looting and destroying their homes. This is stated in the investigation by Bellingcat and The Insider, published Wednesday, August 10th.

At the disposal of journalists was a file of complaints to the Russian Military Prosecutor’s Office, from which you can learn about the looting and atrocities of Russian soldiers on the territory of the “LPR” and “DPR”.

In particular, one of the appeals says that in the village of Lyubovka, occupied in 2014, a Russian tank broke down the gate, demolished the fence and entered the garage of one of the houses, damaging the owners’ cars. After that, the building was robbed. “They stole spare parts and tools for 200,000 rubles, to the point of stealing change from the car… Tell me, are these people?” Victims are quoted as saying.

“Professional Marauders”

In another letter, the author complains that in the village of Baranikovki, in the Luhansk region, also occupied in 2014, a “gang of looters” posing as officers and soldiers of the “LNR” looted houses and infrastructure. “A band of looters entered our village after March 8 and courageously stole a school, a kindergarten, a pharmacy, three shops, farmers and, after opening the locks, took over two houses,” the complaint states. they were professional looters, because “They didn’t despise anything. In the villages, they would knock on the doors of the houses, in the basements, and take everything from there: potatoes, carrots, TVs.

In late May, Mediazona wrote that during the three months of the war, the Russian military sent at least 58 tons of parcels from cities bordering Ukraine. The publication studied SDEK’s database of departure numbers and, using them, revealed “not only an anomalous increase in shipments, which coincided with the beginning of the war, but also unusual connections between cities, confirming the version of wholesale looting. ”.