The names of the military from the crew of the Russian landing vehicle, from which the civilian vehicle of the Chikmarev family was shot in Bucha on March 5, 2022, became known.

Journalists of the Suspilne investigative office revealed the probable names of the perpetrators.

According to the investigative film "Bucha: Crew 111", at the beginning of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine, on the morning of March 5 last year, the spouses of Alexander and Margarita Chikmarev with their two children, as well as their neighbors, tried to leave the city in two cars.

The Chikmarev family. Photo: Suspilne

After some time, they saw a column of Russian combat vehicles, one of which immediately opened fire on civilian vehicles.

The shelling killed Margarita Chikmariova and her two sons: 4-year-old Klym and 9-year-old Matviy. Alexander Chikmarev was driving. He was seriously wounded. He lost his leg. In the second car behind, a man was killed, two women escaped.

"Last year, Suspilne journalists searched for witnesses to the tragedy and found evidence indicating involvement in the shooting of paratroopers of the 104th Guards Air Assault Red Flag Regiment. This was done thanks to the broken combat vehicle of the landing force with tail number 715 left near the place of execution, which, as journalists found out, lagged behind the column and stood on a nearby street until the end of the occupation," the Suspilne article says.

After the liberation of Bucha, this BMD-2 was taken away by the Ukrainian military. To find out which Russian regiment owned the car, journalists spent two months looking for it themselves, because the tail number that witnesses remembered was not enough for identification, they also needed an identification mark. The head of the international association of fortification researchers "Citadel" Pavel Netosov helped to find photos and videos of the BMD.

Subsequently, a captured soldier of the 104th regiment Andrei Medvedev, who was part of the crew of the same abandoned 715th BMD-2, described the circumstances of the incident. He also named five Russian servicemen who were part of the BMD-2 with tail number 111. The BMD-2 that, according to the paratrooper, led the convoy and began shelling civilian vehicles on March 5 in Bucha.

Journalists of the Suspilne investigation office, together with operatives of the Department for the Protection of Society and the State of the National Police of Ukraine, identified those named by Medvedev.

So, the crew commander of the 111th BMD-2 was Senior Sergeant Alexei Churin, who lives in Pskov. According to his job description, he could give the order to shoot at civilian cars.

The commander of the crew of the 111 BMD-2 Alexey Churin with his wife. Photo: social networks

The gunner-operator, that is, the one who performs fire support for personnel, was 24-year-old Nikita Chalov, originally from the Irkutsk region.

The rifleman-operator of the 111th BMD was probably 35-year-old Sergeant Alfred Yakubov. The driver-mechanic is 33-year-old Sergey Demidov.

The rifleman-operator of the 111th BMD was probably 35-year-old Sergeant Alfred Yakubov. The driver-mechanic is 33-year-old Sergey Demidov. Photo: social networks

Also in the 111th BMD was a junior sergeant, 28-year-old Volodymyr Kravets.

Russian paratrooper Vladimir Kravets with his wife. Photo: social networks

"All crew members managed to return alive from Kyiv region. The case is currently being investigated by the Main Investigation Department of the National Police of Ukraine," the article says.

Recall that the scale of destruction in Bucha is impressive. The Google map photo shows craters from shells that exploded throughout the Bucha community.

Read also:

• NATO Secretary General visited Bucha: photo
• He cut his face with a shovel: a witness told about the brutal murder of a relative by the occupiers in the Kyiv region
• "They wanted to destroy everything Ukrainian": how Russians killed entire families in Bucha - a terrible witness story