<\/p>\n
When Russian soldiers spilled into Ukraine in\u00a0February 2022, reports soon<\/a> followed<\/a> of\u00a0rampant looting in\u00a0captured towns. Homes, museums, theaters \u2014 even schools \u2014 were stripped of\u00a0everything from food and clothing to\u00a0computers and washing machines. The stories of\u00a0theft and destruction revealed the brutality of\u00a0Moscow\u2019s invasion. Today, a\u00a0growing body of\u00a0evidence shows that the Russian military has also inflicted some of\u00a0this cruelty on\u00a0its own people. On\u00a0November 5, 2025, after a\u00a0region-wide manhunt, soldiers in\u00a0Belgorod captured<\/a> one of\u00a0their own, Alexey Kostrikin, who murdered<\/a> a\u00a0local homeowner and raped his wife in\u00a0late October before killing again on\u00a0November 3.<\/p>\n Kostrikin is\u00a0one of\u00a0more than 170,000 violent criminals<\/a> recruited from prisons and pretrial detention centers to\u00a0fight in\u00a0Ukraine. According to\u00a0Novaya Gazeta Europe<\/a>, he\u00a0joins the more than 1,130 ex-con veterans who came back from the front in\u00a0the war\u2019s first two years only to\u00a0resume a\u00a0life of\u00a0crime.\u00a0<\/p>\n The news outlet 7\u00d77 examined posts on\u00a0the social network Vkontakte addressed to\u00a0Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of\u00a0the Belgorod border region, and found 78 messages about looting in\u00a0local towns over the first three years of\u00a0the full-scale war in\u00a0Ukraine. Many of\u00a0the people who appealed to\u00a0the governor had to\u00a0repeat their comments numerous times to\u00a0get the authorities\u2019 attention.<\/p>\n For example, 7\u00d77 found that residents of\u00a0the border town of\u00a0Novaya Tavolzhanka began writing in\u00a0June 2023 that Russian soldiers had occupied several evacuated homes and were systematically looting and destroying them. Journalists found photos shared online showing smashed televisions, torn-out radiators, and valuables stacked in\u00a0piles, apparently to\u00a0be\u00a0hauled away.<\/p>\n Several locals reported on\u00a0social media and directly to\u00a07\u00d77 that officials have offered various excuses. Mikhail Proshutinsky said he\u00a0left Novaya Tavolzhanka to\u00a0escape Ukrainian shelling. When neighbors alerted him to\u00a0uniformed strangers living in\u00a0his evacuated home, Proshutinsky turned to\u00a0a\u00a0dozen different agencies for help. Eventually, the military prosecutor\u2019s office confirmed that the interlopers had been evicted, but there was no\u00a0follow-up, and he\u00a0has yet to\u00a0receive any compensation for the extensive damage to\u00a0his home.\u00a0<\/p>\n Other locals seeking help described endless bureaucratic runarounds, forever being redirected to\u00a0another phone number at\u00a0a\u00a0different agency. A\u00a0woman named Maria reached out to\u00a0the governor in\u00a0October 2022 on\u00a0behalf of\u00a0residents of\u00a0Krasny Khutor and Novaya Naumovka, claiming that local police officers refused to\u00a0respond to\u00a0looting because of\u00a0Ukrainian shelling in\u00a0the area. Meanwhile, the regional government has continued to\u00a0claim that military police, territorial defense units, and volunteer patrols are guarding border towns around the clock.<\/p>\n Many civilians living near the Ukrainian border fear looting by\u00a0Russian soldiers more than Kyiv\u2019s attacks. Some residents have stayed in\u00a0their homes despite the shelling and loss of\u00a0access to\u00a0food and medicine.\u00a0<\/p>\n 7\u00d77 found that complaints about looting in\u00a0the Belgorod region far outnumber news reports confirming any investigations into such crimes. In\u00a0the few cases that have reached trial, prosecutors have charged offenders with theft rather than \u201cprohibited means and methods of\u00a0warfare.\u201d Well into Russia\u2019s \u201dspecial military operation,\u201d district officials claimed that they\u2019d yet to\u00a0record a\u00a0single case of\u00a0looting. Governor Gladkov first acknowledged the phenomenon in\u00a0June 2023, vowing to\u00a0increase local patrols and protect people\u2019s property.\u00a0<\/p>\n Meanwhile, in\u00a0the Kursk region<\/strong><\/p>\n Police in\u00a0the neighboring Kursk region have opened roughly 200 cases<\/a> on\u00a0charges of\u00a0looting, though it\u2019s unclear how many of\u00a0these crimes were committed by\u00a0Ukrainian troops during their months-long occupation. Local news reports confirm that police have arrested some Russian soldiers for looting, and a\u00a0handful of\u00a0cases have attracted media attention.<\/p>\n In\u00a0April 2025, a\u00a0serviceman named Dmitry Stenkin attacked a\u00a0family in\u00a0the town of\u00a0Giry, killing the mother, wounding the father, and briefly kidnapping their two young daughters. He\u00a0was soon arrested, but the family reportedly fears<\/a> that the military might try to\u00a0cover up\u00a0the incident. Stenkin is\u00a0a\u00a0convicted rapist who has been in\u00a0and out of\u00a0prison for the past several years for offenses that include threatening murder, attacking a\u00a0police officer, and evading parole. Alexey Kostrikin \u2014 the accused murderer apprehended in\u00a0the Belgorod region on\u00a0November 5 \u2014 is\u00a0also a\u00a0serial criminal. According to\u00a0the news outlet Agentstvo<\/a>, he\u00a0participated in\u00a0the gang rape of\u00a0a\u00a0woman in\u00a02003, a\u00a0year after he\u00a0kidnapped and raped another woman.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Russian soldiers spilled into Ukraine in\u00a0February 2022, reports soon followed of\u00a0rampant looting in\u00a0captured towns. Homes, museums, theaters…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7654],"tags":[2000,299,657,7888,7883,7886,7875,7868,7880,7870,7881,7887,7876,7864,7871,7865,7873,7874,7866,7869,7867,7885,7879,7872,7884,7882,7878,7877],"class_list":{"0":"post-551735","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ukraine","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-ukraine","11":"tag-7888","12":"tag-7883","13":"tag-7886","14":"tag-7875","15":"tag-7868","16":"tag-7880","17":"tag-7870","18":"tag-7881","19":"tag-7887","20":"tag-7876","21":"tag-7864","22":"tag-7871","23":"tag-7865","24":"tag-7873","25":"tag-7874","26":"tag-7866","27":"tag-7869","28":"tag-7867","29":"tag-7885","30":"tag-7879","31":"tag-7872","32":"tag-7884","33":"tag-7882","34":"tag-7878","35":"tag-7877"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115499792145015088","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}