A severed ear, an order to destroy "everything you see"

A severed ear, an order to destroy "everything you see". 21-year-old Russian soldier Stanislav Shmatov had no idea that the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) was recording his conversations when he contacted his family in Russia from Ukraine's Kharkiv region. As well as the rest of the Russian personnel in Ukraine, ...

A severed ear, an order to destroy "everything you see".

21-year-old Russian soldier Stanislav Shmatov had no idea that the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) was recording his conversations when he contacted his family in Russia from Ukraine's Kharkiv region.

Like the rest of the Russian personnel in Ukraine, in the first months of the war, he spoke freely on the phone.

On April 15, in several conversations with his 51-year-old father, Aleksandr Shmatov, and one of his relatives, Irina Zheleznikova, Shmatov described the torture and abuse of a Ukrainian prisoner, as well as looting in the region of Kharkiv.

Shmatov himself describes himself in recorded phone conversations as the driver of a military vehicle.

In another telephone conversation on August 16, he told Radio Free Europe (REL) of Ukraine, more details about the killing of a man after Moscow launched an unprovoked attack on Ukraine on February 24.

According to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, which Russia and Ukraine have signed, torture, the intentional infliction of wounds, the killing of prisoners of war, the intentional targeting of the civilian population and the destruction of property without military necessity are considered war crimes.

Kiev has launched investigations into nearly 32,000 suspected war crimes since its inception.

The Russian army's 15th Brigade, which was also active in March 2014, when Russia annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, was also mentioned in the REL investigation.

The group for the protection of human rights in Kharkiv, one of the war monitors, has received over 400 requests to investigate cases in the Russian-occupied areas of Kharkiv.

The group itself has identified 4,000 incidents through reports in the media or social networks.

However, without access to the occupied areas, Ukrainian and international activists cannot easily verify these reports.

"The situation is quite complicated," said Hanna Ovdiyenko, a lawyer at the Group for the Protection of Human Rights in Kharkiv.

"Currently, most crimes are hidden because we do not have access to the occupied territories."

However, satellite photos, telecommunications data and Shmatov's own comments have made it possible to identify the location of the village where the murder is believed to have taken place.

Telephone traces

His calls with family members in Russia were the first traces identified by the Ukrainian Service of REL.

According to recordings provided by sources within security institutions in Ukraine, his first call is believed to have been identified on March 3, near Chernihiv, a region about 140 kilometers northeast of Kiev.

His digital footprints disappeared within a month after Russian troops withdrew from areas around Chernihiv as Russian troops failed to take control of the Ukrainian capital, Kiev.

In mid-April, a telephone tower in eastern Ukraine identified his signal.

On April 15, Ukrainian security services recorded two of his calls.

The use of mobile phones in areas with insecure internet has enabled the Ukrainian military to continuously eavesdrop on Russian troops.

However, Shmatov did not pay attention to this work.

"We shot at everything"

In a conversation with a man believed to be his father - as they have the same address in Russia - Shmatov said that his brigade attacked the village with rockets and other weapons from three sides.

"We shot everything - houses, cars, everything.

We destroyed all the houses with tanks", said Shmatov.

"We have two prisoners.

We took their AK-47 rifles and other rifles."

"We cut off one of their ears."

"Why?"

asked his father, Aleksandr Shmatov.

"He didn't want to walk, that's why we cut off his ear," the soldier replied.

The father told him that this sounds "harsh", but the son did not agree.

"We didn't shoot him in time, so he's fine," said the soldier, Stanislav Shmatov.

Soldiers can "have one or two fingers cut off", he added, smiling.

"Cleaning" of the village

In the telephone conversation with his father, Shmatov did not mention his exact location, saying that he does not even know, but only mentioned that it is in the Kharkiv region.

However, he mentioned a railway running through the village, a river and nature nearby.

According to the Ukrainian Government, the soldier was in the village of Borova.

According to Russian media reports, Russia's army entered these regions on April 15.

Intelligence sources have said on condition of anonymity that many Ukrainian soldiers were captured in these villages in April.

On April 15, in a telephone conversation with Zheleznikova, a family woman, Shmatov spoke about the "liberation" of the village from the "Nazis", and that a commander had given them the order to destroy all the buildings in the village.

"Has the commander given this order?" Zheleznikova asked.

"Yes", answered Shmatov.

"The commander of the battalion, of the brigade, his deputy.

He said 'Destroy the buildings as soon as you see them.

To the devil all the buildings".

The authorities in the village of Borova have said that after the Russian forces occupied some parts, the residents of those areas have been living in basements for a long time.

Radio Free Europe has not been able to verify these reports, but satellite images of the Piski-Radkivski region in Borova reveal the level of destruction.

Shmatov was recorded saying that his brigade attacked the village from three sides.

The Russian Defense Ministry has denied reports that its soldiers have tortured and abused Ukrainian prisoners of war, or that they have mistreated civilians in occupied areas.

However, the ministry has not provided data to support its statements.

Denial and threats

On August 16, REL contacted Shmatov at the phone number he used in Ukraine.

Wounded and recuperating in Russia, he claimed that he "never saw a prisoner" as he was in the Kharkiv region.

He has said that he is not responsible for the violence that he described in the phone calls that the Ukrainian authorities recorded.

Shmatov said that what he described in the village in Kharkiv were stories that he only heard.

Asked if someone's ear was cut off, he said: "Honestly, my brigade and my sons, the people who were with me, none of them did something like that."

When the REL journalist finally identified himself as a Ukrainian journalist, Shmatov threatened him.

"I will come and shoot you in the forehead if you call someone from my brigade again."

However, despite the denials, Shmatov has mentioned throughout the conversation that someone from the Russian army personnel was involved in the killing of a Ukrainian who was held by Russian forces during his first mission in Ukraine.

With this statement, he seems to have referred to the offensive in the north of Ukraine, in the first days of the war.

With a light laugh, he said that the "boys" beat the prisoner badly in a factory.

"And then they killed him", he said later.

However, he has denied that the soldiers committed war crimes.

"We have not done anything like that."

Initially, Shmatov did not answer whether the brigade commander gave orders to soldiers to terrorize civilians.

"I was there according to my will, how can I say it", he said.

"I have not cried my head off for anyone else."

Later, he was asked why he told Zheleznikova that he had orders to destroy the buildings and "raze everything to the ground".

"Ah yes, we had this order", he said.

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A severed ear, an order to destroy "everything you see"