1/ Leaked messages and photographs from a senior Russian general show his role in the murder, torture and abuse of captured Ukrainians, some of whom had their ears cut off. The messages illustrate how routine extreme brutality is in the Russian army, even at senior levels. ⬇️ 
2/ Major General Roman Demurchiev, Deputy Commander of the 20th Combined Arms Army of the Russian Federation, has been commanding Russian forces in Ukraine since 2022. He has been given awards and promotions for his service.
3/ Ukrainian sources have obtained an archive of his personal data by undisclosed means, almost certainly by hacking his phone. The correspondence, published in part by Radio Liberty, includes open references to the mistreatment of Ukrainian POWs.
4/ On 18 October 2022, Demurchiev told his subordinates that his men had captured a Ukrainian position, possibly near Avdiivka, taking four Ukrainians prisoner. He accompanied the mesage with a photograph of severed and blackened human ears hanging from a metal pipe.
5/ He subsequently sent the photo to his wife Alexandra. She asked in reply:
– And then what do we do with them?
– I'll make a garland and give it to you as a gift.
- Like pig's ears with beer.
- Yeah.
– And then what do we do with them?
– I'll make a garland and give it to you as a gift.
- Like pig's ears with beer.
- Yeah.
6/ The men were likely captured by Chechen fighters. However, Demurchiev seems to have been dismissive of the role of the elite Chechen Akhmat units. Referring to the stronghold's capture, he told a colleague: "The scouts screwed everyone. Akhmat is licking its balls in anger."
7/ In other messages, Demurchiev complained about the Chechens, calling them no good and castigating them as "pennywisers and PR people," and emphasising that "only Slavs show results." All the same, he was happy to be given a medal by Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.
8/ Cutting the ears off prisoners was a frequent practice of the Russians during the Chechen wars of the 1990s and early 2000s, in which Demurchiev fought. As TV journalist Alexander Nevzorov told Russian viewers in 1996:
9/ "I can tell you for sure that it's hard to find a [Russian army] scout who doesn't have a dried Chechen ear tucked into his sleeve pocket. It's presented as identification on special occasions."
10/ After Demurchiev sent the photo of the captured Ukrainians to his mentor, Major General Igor Timofeev, Timofeev replied: "Didn't they touch the ears? Like when you were a kid?"
11/ Demurchiev informed him that the prisoners were being "transported intact," but also subsequently sent Timofeev the photo of the severed ears. He commented: "Nothing changes. Only time and we grow old. We wither."
12/ He refers again to ear cutting in a voice message sent at the end of 2024 to an apparent FSB special forces contact, likely one Valery Nikolaevich Nepop:
13/ "You're the boss of a super organization, my dream. Damn, and you cut off ears. Damn. But at our age, they don't do that anymore. They just give orders to someone to do something."
14/ Torture is also a frequent theme in correspondence sent to and by Demurchiev, which suggests how normalised it is in the Russian army.
15/ In December 2023, Lieutenant General Mikhail Kosobokov, commander of the 49th Combined Arms Army of the Southern Military District, sent Demurchiev a video of a mouse being tortured in a mock interrogation. Demurchiev responded with a smiley face.
16/ The video shows a crucified live mouse being "interrogated", with a cigarette and a piece of wafer stuffed into its mouth as "rewards." Demurchiev gave the video an approving smiley face. He sent Kosobokov an image stating: "It's not a war crime if you had fun."
17/ Another "mouse torture" video was sent to Demurchiev in March 2024 by Colonel Alexei Shvedov. The voiceover says: "Fuck him! Answer me, bitch, where's the rest of the group, who's in charge, where's Zelensky?"
18/ Demurchiev frequently discussed Ukrainian POWs, whom he referred to as "gifts", with an apparent military counterintelligence (possibly DVKR) officer with the callsign or nickname 'Greek'. They discussed killing and torturing POWs.
19/ On one occasion, Demurchiev wrote: "Yesterday they took a prisoner ... a boorish Ukrainian... Well, the soldiers fucking killed him there in the trench."
20/ Demurchiev also discussed personally killing prisoners. "I've shot people, for example. I shoot him in the eye – a tracer comes out of the back of his head. I understand that he's an enemy, yes, he's a jerk. ... But we're all human."
21/ In an October 2023 message, Demurchiev asked Greek: "I have a prisoner ... I can give him to you. He's sitting over there in the pit ... What should I do with him – dispose of him or give him to you? ...
22/ "We didn't have time to torture him, so the information is voluntary... But you have plenty of time, you can use various tools to make a person tell the truth."
23/ Demurchiev told Greek in September 2023 that a POW had been killed in captivity: “There was another one. He didn't make it. Bastard." "Right. I'm personally in favour of disposal. Otherwise, we won't defeat them," Greek replied.
24/ Greek occasionally asked Demurchiev to do him a favour by secretly killing unwanted prisoners. In August 2023, Greek asked Demurchiev to murder some Ukrainians who had been captured for apparent partisan activity:
25/ "There's a case. An undercover one. There are several faggots caught red-handed at caches with IEDs. Real members of the residency [i.e. Ukrainian agents]... But they can't be handed over for trial...
26/ "There's an offer to let them work as trench diggers for a couple of days... Well, and leave them there. Forever." He asked if Demurchiev knows any "reliable people" who are "not talkative" to do the work.
27/ Demurchiev agreed and told Greek that "Nobody will know. I give my word as divisional commander. 🥰". He offered Greek some smuggled black caviar as a gift.
28/ A message sent in June 2024 recorded Demurchiev's frustration with the Ukrainians, likely following setbacks on the battlefield: "I'll soon piss on them all, fuck. Take no prisoners, that's it, fuck."
29/ "I'll take no fucking prisoners, fuck, I'll finish them all, fuck. These faggots made me angry. I'll fuck them all. I won't take prisoners. I'll piss on them first, then shoot them, and then burn their asses."
30/ In December 2024, Demurchiev's soldiers were filmed on a (likely Russian) drone's thermal camera hacking three Ukrainian POWs to death with entrenching shovels and apparently blowing up the bodies afterwards.
31/ He was sent the video, which includes the following conversation, probably spoken by the drone operators:
– Is he cutting them up?
– Yes, with a shovel.
– Ours?
– Yes.
– No fucking way!
– Is he cutting them up?
– Yes, with a shovel.
– Ours?
– Yes.
– No fucking way!
32/ The killers appear to have been former convicts. Demurchiev sent the following voice message to his superior at the time, Lt Gen Oleg Mityaev, commander of the 20th Army (whose death was claimed by Ukraine in 2022, but was later disproved):
33/ "Well, I reported to you. Two zeks [convicts] entered the strongpoint, and three Ukrainians took up their position. They took them prisoner and hacked them to death with shovels, fucking animals, fuck. Look at this, fucking execution with entrenching shovels, fuck."
34/ Mityaev asked: "And then, was there an attack on the convicts or what? That last video, there's some kind of explosion or something?"
To which Demurchiev replied: "Maybe they chopped them up first and then fucked them, fuck?" (laughs)
To which Demurchiev replied: "Maybe they chopped them up first and then fucked them, fuck?" (laughs)
35/ Mityaev sent Demurchiev a message approving of the killings:
"The prisoners who took the point, they chopped them up with shovels, God willing, [if] they survive, they should definitely be nominated for an award."
"The prisoners who took the point, they chopped them up with shovels, God willing, [if] they survive, they should definitely be nominated for an award."
36/ "Keep pushing, little by little, well done. ... Well done, keep pushing, keep pushing those bastards, damn it."
Other messages illustrate the brutal methods used to command the Russians' own troops.
Other messages illustrate the brutal methods used to command the Russians' own troops.
37/ In a November 2023 message to then-general Ivan Popov, commander of the 58th Combined Arms Army, Demurchiev described how Vitaly Samarin, commander of the 291st Motorised Regiment, was treating convict soldiers under his command:
38/ "Samarin is pissed off, fuck. Samarin is fucking angry, he says he has four groups of 14 men each, assault troops. From among the zeks. He set up a blocking detachment and said, "No one will come out of there alive, fuck, fuck, fuck."
39/ "He said, "Well, I'm sick of all this shit. Let's go, fuck it." In short, either victory, or no one will get out of there, fuck it. That's the decision, fuck. They [probably meaning the Ukrainians] will stop humiliating us, insulting us, fucking bullying us.
40/ "[The convicts] just got to the edge [probably referring to a treeline] and stood there, their legs trembling. The commander of the assault squad knocked out [likely meaning executed] two of his own guys. They still won't move, they're scared." /end
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