Britain targets Putin’s ‘butcher of Bucha’ in a wave of new sanctions against Russia

Britain has announced new sanctions against Vladimir Putin‘s ‘war leaders’, including the colonel who oversaw the horrifying mass murder of Ukrainian civilians in Bucha. 

The move will target those ‘commanding the front line’ to commit ‘heinous’ acts in Ukraine, according to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).

The list includes Lt Colonel Azatbek Omurbekov, a commanding officer in the Russian army with involvement in the ‘Bucha massacre’; Colonel General Andrey Serdyukov, commander of airborne forces; Major General Valery Flyustikov, commander of special operations forces; and Colonel General Nikolay Bogdanovsky, first deputy chief of the general staff, the FCDO said.

Omurbekov earned the nickname of the ‘Butcher of Bucha’ for commanding the Russian unit that is believed to be behind the civilian massacre in the Ukrainian town.

The commander of the 64th Separate Motorised Rifle Brigade – who is thought to be around 40 – was once given a medal for outstanding service in 2014 by Dmitry Bulgakov, the deputy Russian Defence Minister.

He now stands accused of organising the rape, pillage and murder of hundreds of Ukrainian civilians in Bucha, a commuter town on the outskirts of Kyiv, during Russia’s month-long occupation throughout March.

Since Russian forces were pushed back from the region, hundreds of bodies of civilians have been found, the majority of which were discovered with gunshot wounds. Some had their hands tied behind their backs, and had been tortured.

Serdyukov, meanwhile, is one of Russia’s six senior commanders who are responsible for overseeing the various military districts involved in the invasion of Ukraine. He was also at the head of the Russian operation that annexed Crimea in 2014.

lyustikov is the Commander of Russia’s Special Operations Forces, while Bogdanovsk is the First Deputy Chief of the General Staff of Russia’s armies.

Omurbekov and the others were subject to a travel ban and asset freeze by Britain.

‘Key leaders in Russia’s army’ are being targeted as part of a new wave of 26 sanctions, the FCDO said in a press release of Thursday.

The UK is also taking action against individuals outside of Vladimir Putin’s military, who are ‘actively supporting his illegal invasion of Ukraine’, it said.

These include Oleg Belozyorov, the chief executive and chairman of vital logistics company Russian Railways, and Ilya Kiva, the defecting and expelled Ukrainian MP who has publicly supported Russia’s actions in Ukraine, the department said.

Another senior figure on the sanctions list was Sergei Borisovich Korolyov, the First Deputy Director of Federal Security Service of Russia (FSB). In the past, he has been accused of orchestrating contract killings and kidnappings for the Russian state. 

‘The depravity of Russia’s assault on the people of Ukraine is plain for all to see,’ Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in a statement.

‘They are deliberately targeting hospitals, schools, and transport hubs in Mariupol and beyond – just as they did in Chechnya and Syria.

‘The UK is unyielding in our support for Ukraine and in holding Putin and his regime to account. Today’s new wave of sanctions hits the generals and defence companies that have blood on their hands.’

In the wider press release, the FCDO said: Since March 10, Russian bombers have repeatedly dropped munitions on civilian infrastructure, including civil government buildings, hospitals, schools and transportation nodes. 

‘The UK government conclusion is that this is intentional targeting based on the types of civilian targets struck, frequency of strikes, volume of munitions and the repeated targeting of the same locations on consecutive days.’ 

The FCDO also said it was fast tracking a further 19 individuals and organisations ‘entities in alignment with global partners from the G7 and the EU’ that are linked to Russia’s military and defence capabilities – including Korolyov.

A number of the individuals were accused by Britain of ‘undermining the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine by supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine.’

Ilya Kiva, expelled Ukrainian MP, is on the list, as is Oleg Belozyorov, CEO and Board Chairman of Russian Railways. The FCDO said Russian Railways has been vital to Moscow to transport its military equipment to Ukraine.

A number of companies were also named on the list, including: GTLK, Russia’s largest leasing company; Jsc Arz Machinebuilding Plant, part of a Military Industrial Company; JSC Kalashnikov Concern, a Russian developer; and manufacturer of army Russian equipment and Llc Military Industrial Company, a major arms and military equipment provider.

All were included on the list for providing key services to the Russian army. 

Ukraine and most major western countries have accused Russia of war crimes in Bucha during the several weeks when the northern town was under Russian occupation. 

Pictures of dead civilians that emerged after Russian forces withdrew sparked an international uproar and led to further sanctions on Russia by the United States, Britain and the European Union.

Russia has denied allegations that it killed civilians in Bucha, calling footage and photographs of dead bodies a ‘staged performance’ by Kyiv.

Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office said it has concluded that Russian attacks on Ukrainian government buildings, schools and hospitals since March 10 were intentional based on, among other things, the types of civilian targets struck, frequency of strikes and volume of munitions used.

Earlier in the week, Ukraine said the second phase of the war had begun with the ‘Battle of Donbas’ in the country’s east, after failing to capture the capital Kyiv and being forced to withdraw from the north.

Russia calls its incursion a ‘special military operation’ to demilitarise and ‘denazify’ Ukraine. Kyiv and its Western allies reject that as a false pretext for an illegal war of aggression.

Meanwhile, the bodies of more than 1,000 innocent Ukrainian civilians are being stored in morgues near Kyiv after Russian troops abandoned their savage campaign to take the capital.

More and more corpses are continuing to pile up after the Kremlin withdrawal from central Ukraine revealed the scale of horrors in towns such as Bucha, Irpin and Borodyanka, after they were recaptured. Many bodies were dumped in mass graves or left rotting on the street showing signs of torture. 

‘1,020 bodies (of) civilians, only civilians, in the areas of all the Kyiv region,’ were discovered, Olga Stefanishyna, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine, told AFP in Borodyanka.

‘These are only civilians collected from buildings, but also on the streets,’ she said, adding the bodies date back to the beginning of the savage invasion.