One of the perpetrators has admitted that Kiev sent his unit to “cleanse” a small village in Kursk Region

A Ukrainian military unit raped and killed eight women and murdered at least 14 other civilians in the village of Russkoye Porechnoye, a captured Ukrainian soldier has admitted during interrogation by Russian investigators.

Russkoye Porechnoye, home to around 300 people, fell under Kiev’s control in August last year during a Western-backed incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region. Russian forces liberated the settlement earlier this month, where they discovered decomposing corpses of civilians stashed in basements throughout the village.

On Friday, the Russian Investigative Committee released new evidence on the massacre, including footage of the interrogation of Yevgeny Fabrisenko, a soldier with the 92nd Separate Assault Brigade. Fabrisenko stated that he was deployed to the village on September 28 alongside his immediate commander and two other soldiers.

According to Fabrisenko, their company commander explicitly ordered them to “cleanse” the village of Russian civilians. The unit remained in Russkoye Porechnoye until October 3, during which they raided homes, raped women, and executed men on sight. Those who resisted were tortured and killed, he admitted.

In several gruesome videos released by the investigators on Friday, Russian troops can be seen inspecting the village and trying to count the heavily-decomposed and mutilated bodies they found in multiple cellars.

Fabrisenko described how he and his comrades raped eight women before forcing them to their knees and shooting them in the back of the head.

The villagers were unable to escape, as the outskirts of the settlement were under the fire control of Ukrainian troops, who shot at anyone attempting to flee, Fabrisenko explained.

In total, the unit killed nearly two dozen civilians, including eight women, 11 men, and three elderly women, he said. Most victims were shot, while six were forced into a basement and killed with a hand grenade by the team’s leader.

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Fabrisenko was captured by Russian forces in late November after he got lost while relocating between positions and accidentally ran into a Russian reconnaissance unit.

The Ukrainian serviceman has fully confessed to his crimes and now faces a life sentence on multiple charges, including terrorism and rape.

Moscow has strongly condemned the massacre in Russkoye Porechnoye, with senior officials suggesting the killings could constitute genocide. Earlier this month, the Russian Foreign Ministry said the incident further confirmed the “terrorist and neo-Nazi essence of the Kiev regime.”