Russian accused by Ukraine of torture and killings in Bucha given high-ranking post in Russia

Nursultan Mussagaleyev is wanted in Ukraine on war crimes charges in Ukraine over his believed part in atrocities in Bucha during the first months of Russia’s full-scale invasion.  In Russia, he has been treated as a ‘hero’ since 2022, and has now been appointed acting minister of regional and information policy for Orenburg oblast   

Mussagaleyev is believed to have been among the forces who invaded Ukraine from the north on 24 February 2022 and arrived in Bucha raion to prepare for the assault on Kyiv.  At the time, he had lieutenant status and was the commander of a reconnaissance unit of the 104th air-assault regiment of the 76th air assault division of Russia’s airborne troops who are based in Pskov when not invading other countries.

After the Russians’ retreat from Kyiv oblast, Mussagaleyev was pronounced a ‘hero of the Russian Federation’; received three state awards for ‘courage’, as well as a medal ‘for services to the fatherland’,   There are no grounds for assuming that this array of awards, as well as a propaganda feature film about him shown at prime time on the state television channel Rossiya 1, were because Russian leader Vladimir Putin and the defence ministry were not aware of the very serious allegations against him and his subordinates.  In April 2022, while the international media was full of harrowing reports about Russian atrocities in Bucha and other liberated parts of Kyiv oblast, Putin honoured the very 64th Motor Rifle Brigade believed to be behind many of the rapes, torture and killings. The presidential decree talked of “mass heroism and daring, tenacity and courage” 

While huge numbers of convicted killers, released to kill Ukrainians, have returned to Russia, and committed new and gruesome crimes, Putin has pushed a narrative about ‘veterans of what he calls Russia’s special military operation’ being the “new Russian heroes”.  Mussagaleyev appears to have been one of the star pupils of a special training course called ‘time of the heroes’, with his new post in Orenburg oblast, seemingly, his reward.

Ukraine’s Security Service [SBU] stated on 4 October 2023 that Numsultan Mussagaleyev was accused of involvement in mass torture and killing of civilians during the occupation of part of Kyiv oblast.  He is accused of having taken part in so-called ‘purges’, aimed at crushing the resistance movement and intimidating the local population.  The SBU believe that he ordered his subordinates to abduct a 29-year-old local resident who was in his car trying to cross a Russian checkpoint.  The invaders accused the man of helping Ukraine’s Armed Forces to build fortifications around Kyiv.  The pretext for this was a photo in his telephone of building materials.  He was taken to the forest near the settlement Dmytrivka, savagely tortured and then, on orders from Mussagaleyev, was shot and killed.

SBU received testimony from a Russian POW who had been in Mussagaleyev’s unit and who confirmed that the 29-year-old, who is known to have been seized on 12 March 2022, had been tortured and shot.  The two subordinates who are believed to have carried out the killing are Alexei Kolesnikov and Aleksandr Visyelkov

The SBU had, it said, formally notified all three men that they are accused of war crimes committed by a group of people, under Article 438 § 1 and 2 and Article 28 § 1 of Ukraine’s Criminal Code.   

The SBU did not name the 29-year-old victim, however he was almost certainly Ivan Fishner, who was originally from Poltava oblast, but lived in Kyiv.  The Media Initiative for Human Rights identified Ivan as one of four civilians who had been seized by the Russians and later recorded as having disappeared without trace. While the fate of the other three civilians remains unknown, Ivan Fishner’s body was discovered on 30 December 2022, near Dmytrivka.

Daryna, a friend and colleague, told MIHR that she, her 4-year-old son and her mother had fled from Bucha to the village of Myritske after the Russians invaded.    Ivan had rung on 12 March 2022 and said that he and a friend were coming by car to get her and her family to safety.   The two men arrived, and both her family, and another, set off, with eight people altogether in the car. 

At the first Russian checkpoint, the invaders ‘checked’ all the men in the car, immediately paying particular attention to Ivan, initially demanding to know why he had a ‘German surname’.  At that stage the Russians took him aside, forced him to undress (to inspect any tattoos), but let him return to the car, and move on.

He was seized at the next checkpoint, with the invaders that time coming straight for him.  They took his documents and phone, inspecting the latter and, Daryna says, clearly finding something they objected to.  She recalls that they demanded to know why Ivan had downloaded Telegram on 24 February. 

Daryna says that a Russian tank drove up and the invaders put Ivan on it, with this heading off in the direction of Dmytrivka.  The others waited an hour, then the Russians told them to go on, falsely claiming that they would send Ivan on. 

His friends began searching for him from 14 March, and hoped, to the last, that he was imprisoned.    

In March 2024, Andriy Niebytov, Head of Ukraine’s National Police, reported that the bodies of 422 civilians killed by the invaders had been uncovered after Bucha was liberated.  1,190 bodies had been found in Bucha and the surrounding raion.  Those figures did not include the many civilians who had disappeared without trace during the Russian occupation.

See also: Ukraine names Russian commander suspected of issuing order to kill civilians in Bucha

The youngest victim of Russia’s Bucha atrocities was less than two years old