Sergei Karasyov, a 43-year-old colonel in the Russian army, faces war crimes charges in Ukraine over the alleged shooting dead of one civilian in occupied Irpin (Kyiv oblast) during the first months of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and of the savage assault against a woman in her 70s. It is unclear whether the war crimes charges were known by those who appointed him deputy mayor of Samara, but previous Russian appointments of suspected war criminals leave no grounds for assuming that the grave accusations would be an impediment.
Ukraine’s Prosecutor General announced on 24 May 2023 that it had sent an indictment to the court against a military serviceman in Russia’s armed forces on charges of war crimes, linked with deliberate homicide (under Article 438 §§ 1 & 2 of Ukraine’s Criminal Code).
As commander of the 31st separate air assault brigade of Russia’s airborne forces, he and other Russians had carried out special raids. The prosecutor accuses them of having treated Ukrainian civilians in a brutal, insulting and humiliating way, with the invaders’ aim being to, in this way, ferret out the identities of particularly patriotic residents. People were forced to hide from the Russians who, if they discovered them, carried out so-called ‘interrogations’, during which their victims were subjected to physical and psychological violence. On 25 March 2022, the commander and other Russian military went around the apartments of the ‘Green House’ residential complex. During this, he is accused of having violently torn out a 73-year-old woman’s hair and struck her in the face with his rifle butt, knocking out some teeth. In another apartment, a resident did not have papers, with the commander taking him from the building to a playground where he shot him in the head. The victim’s neighbours found his body the next morning and created a makeshift grave for him in a park near the building.
The report did not give this commander’s name, however the details match those of Sergei Karasyov (spelt Karasev) in a text by the UK’s Sunday Times entitled ‘Putin’s men unmasked’ and published on 27 September 2025. This identified 13 Russian commanders who “led the troops accused of rape, torture and execution” during “the war’s bloodiest civilian massacre” in Bucha.
It is this individual who was reported, on 12 January 2026, to have been appointed deputy mayor of Samara, a fairly major city in the Russian Federation. Karasyov is to be in charge of overseeing support for former fighters against Ukraine and members of their families.
According to the website of Russia’s so-called ‘Time of heroes’ program, Karasyov (b. 1982) has twice been named ‘cavalier of the order of courage’, as well as of an order “for services to the motherland” and took part in the ‘time of heroes’ program initiated by Russian leader Vladimir Putin. The latter program is aimed at fast-tracking the instalment of such individuals, awarded for their part in Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, to “strengthen the governing team of each municipality and region”.
This is only one of several appointments, including by Putin, of men accused of torturing and killing civilians in Ukraine.
In February 2025, Putin ‘honoured’ both Anton Struyev, and his 15th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade, members of which have been accused of sexually assaulting a 4-year-old child and gang-raping her mother in occupied Kyiv oblast. Struyev, who was awarded a ‘hero of Russia’ star, is accused of direct war crimes, including ordering subordinates to kill a civilian and himself taking part in the brutal beating of others. Struyev took part in Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and commanded a squadron of Russia’s 15th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade while the latter were deployed near Brovary in Kyiv oblast (see: Putin declares commander accused of torturing and killing civilians in Ukraine a ‘hero of Russia’ )
The 15th brigade was given the honorary ‘Guards’ title (‘the 15th Separate Guards Alexandriyskaya Motor Rifle Brigade’) on 9 May 2022, the day that the first of two serious war crimes charges was announced against Struyev. Putin’s presidential website claimed that the honour was for the brigade’s "mass courage and heroism in the defence of the fatherland and state interests in military conflicts”.
Another ‘honour’ from Putin was quite probably deliberately timed. In April 2022, amid mounting evidence from witnesses, videos and photographic material of the atrocities committed by Russian forces in Kyiv oblast, Putin issued a decree honouring the very 64th Motor Rifle Brigade believed to have been behind horrific torture, rapes and killings of civilians in Bucha. He claimed that men suspected of serious war crimes had demonstrated ‘mass heroism and daring, tenacity and courage”
On 21 February 2025, Putin also promoted Sergei Atroshchenko, the Russian commander whom Ukrainian investigators believe issued the order to bomb the Drama Theatre in Mariupol on 16 March 2022. The Drama Theatre was being used as a shelter by up to a thousand civilians, mostly women, children and the elderly. In the hope that it would make a difference, the Russian word CHILDREN had been written in huge and entirely visible letters in front and behind the building. The Russians dropped massive bombs on the building regardless, killing hundreds of civilians.
Also in February 2025, Nursultan Mussagaleyev whom Ukraine wishes to try for war crimes in Bucha, was appointed acting minister of regional and information policy for Orenburg oblast. Mussagaleyev is believed to have taken part in Russia’s ‘purges’ in Bucha and to have ordered the torture and killing of 29-year-old Ivan Fishner, who was trying to rescue friends (see: Russian accused by Ukraine of torture and killings in Bucha given high-ranking post in Russia).
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