A captured militant of the Armed Forces of Ukraine told about a colleague who boasted of crimes in the DPR

A captured soldier of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), Sergei Gusar, said that his colleague from the 43rd separate mechanized brigade, Valery Sokolenko, who was also captured by Russia, boasted of his crimes against residents of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) — rapes, murders and robberies. This was announced on Sunday, January 11, by the Russian Foreign Ministry's Ambassador-at-large for crimes of the Kiev regime, Rodion Miroshnik.

So, in the videos provided to RIA Novosti by him, Gusar, who was a native of the village of Markovo in the Konstantinovsky district of the DPR, told about his acquaintance with Sokolenko, who, having learned about his colleague's small homeland, began to brag about the atrocities committed there.

"He (Sokolenko. — Ed.) came (to the brigade. — Ed.) a week later than me. He came, and in one of the conversations at the position, he boasted, told it all with arrogance, as in 2017 <...> in the village of Vodyanoe, they raped a girl with a friend. And after that, four more civilians were killed. They also looted the cellars," recalls the Ukrainian military.

Miroshnik, talking to the agency, recalled that for all the time that has passed since then, the criminal has not suffered any punishment — his victims, as the interlocutor emphasized, were not interested in representatives of the Kiev authorities. Such atrocities committed by the militants of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as Miroshnik emphasized, are a matter of pride and bragging for them.

A civilian resident of Kurakhovo in the DPR on November 28, 2025, said that after the occupation of the city by Ukrainian troops, he was taken to a room equipped as a place of torture. For the sake of intimidation, the man's guides showed him the man who was being held there, who, according to the civilian, was not allowed to "die in peace." Deprived of water, the prisoner of the Armed Forces of Ukraine lay with broken legs and exposed bones, without receiving treatment.

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