The British newspaper The Sunday Times, citing materials from Ukrainian police and security services, published the names of 13 Russian servicemen whom investigators believe were involved in the killing of Ukrainian civilians on the so-called “road of death”—a stretch of the Zhytomyr highway in Kyiv Region.
The report concerns events in February and March 2022, during the first weeks of Russia’s full-scale invasion. At the time, Kyiv residents were fleeing west in large numbers, assuming that the fighting would unfold from the eastern border. Instead, the highway was cut off by Russian units that had entered Ukraine from Belarus.
According to the journalists’ findings, the stretch of road was controlled by units from the Russian army’s 5th Tank Brigade and 37th Motor Rifle Brigade. Their mission was to secure the rear of forces advancing on Kyiv. Investigators say 27 civilians were killed on this section of road, while five others sustained severe injuries. Vehicles, together with the bodies of those killed, were burned.
The article lists the names of servicemen whom journalists identified as suspects. From the 5th Separate Tank Brigade, these include Lieutenant Colonel Roman Nikolaenko, the brigade commander; Major Tkharo Abataev; Lieutenant Daniil Ishchenko; Senior Sergeant Belikto Budaev; Junior Sergeants Chingis Taryashinov and Aleksei Churin; and Corporal Andrei Medvedev. From the 37th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade—Lieutenant Vadim Ovchinnikov; Junior Sergeant Mikhail Zharkoi; Corporals Sergei Svarcheskii and Eldar Garmatarov; and Privates Ivan Nagumanov and Artem Belikov.
Russian forces began withdrawing from the outskirts of Kyiv in late March 2022, coinciding with the start of the first Russian-Ukrainian talks in Istanbul. By early April, after Ukrainian troops returned to the liberated territories, details of the killings on the Zhytomyr highway became known. Around the same time, the world learned of mass killings in Bucha, located roughly 15 kilometers to the north.
Investigators established that no later than March 3 Russian troops began setting up firing positions and digging trenches along the highway—this was captured on video by a reconnaissance drone operated by Ukraine’s territorial defense. On the same day, at a checkpoint near the village of Motyzhyn, about 20 kilometers from Kyiv’s exit, a car carrying the Yatsiuk family was fired upon. The parents, Denys and Anna, were killed instantly. Their daughters—Arina and Valeriia—were also in the vehicle. Valeriia was left near the nearest village, where she was found by local residents; she was later adopted by her aunt and uncle living in Poland. Arina was wounded and handed over to Russian military medics. Two years later, her body was discovered in a morgue in Belarus. According to Ukraine’s prosecutor’s office, six Russian servicemen were present at the checkpoint, under the command of Lieutenant Vadim Ovchinnikov.
Another episode occurred on March 7 at a position near a gas station between the villages of Myla and Mriia, about seven kilometers from Kyiv. A колонна of civilian vehicles came under fire. One of the drivers, 31-year-old Maksym Iovenko, who was traveling with his wife and daughter, stepped out of the car with his hands raised and was shot dead. Investigators believe the shots were fired by Lieutenant Daniil Ishchenko, commander of the 2nd Tank Platoon of the 5th Tank Brigade, and Junior Sergeant Chingis Taryashinov. Their involvement was established through duty rosters left behind by Russian troops during their withdrawal, as well as testimony from a captured Russian soldier, Erdeni Ukhinov. Iovenko’s wife and daughter were released.
Ukraine’s prosecutor’s office has announced suspicions against officers who commanded units along the Zhytomyr highway, stressing that these were not isolated incidents but crimes of a systematic nature, carrying command responsibility. Among the evidence cited are intercepted radio communications containing orders to “kill everyone.”
One of the figures named in the investigation, Major Tkharo Abataev, was killed on March 20, 2022. He was posthumously awarded the Order of Courage, and a school in Makhachkala was named after him. Senior Sergeant Belikto Budaev was killed on March 7.
Both brigades—the 5th Tank Brigade and the 37th Motor Rifle Brigade—were formed in Buryatia. Ukrainian law enforcement agencies had previously announced suspicions against other servicemen from these units, including the commander of the 37th Brigade, Colonel Ivan Kii, who—along with several of his subordinates—is suspected of torturing local residents.
Ukraine’s prosecutor’s office views this investigation as a first step toward filing a war crimes case with the International Criminal Court. The killings on the Zhytomyr highway form part of a broader investigation into crimes committed by Russian forces in Kyiv Region, including the events in Bucha.