A Russian general promoted by Putin sent his wife a photo of severed ears taken from Ukrainian POWs. She said they reminded her of beer snacks. RFE/RL has the messages.
The abuse of Ukrainian prisoners of war — beatings, torture, and extrajudicial killings — has been documented throughout Russia’s full-scale invasion. What has been harder to document is the chain of command behind it: who is informed and who issues the orders. Through an archive of personal messages, photographs, and videos obtained from a source within the Ukrainian military, journalists now have rare insight into Russian war crimes in Ukraine. In a new investigation, journalists at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s investigative projects Skhemy and Sistema examined the private correspondence of Russian General Roman Demurchiev. They found that he had boasted to close contacts and fellow service members about torturing, executing, and desecrating the bodies of Ukrainian military personnel, including prisoners of war. The archive spans 2022 to 2024 and reveals not only Demurchiev’s own conduct but also the complicity of his superiors, up to the commander of a combined-arms army numbering in the tens of thousands. Meduza summarizes RFE/RL’s findings.Roman Demurchiev, 49, enjoys a good reputation within the Russian military. He has attended meetings with senior commanders and has received numerous decorations. In 2023, President Putin promoted him to major general. Demurchiev served as deputy commander of Russia’s 20th Combined Arms Army until at least December 2024, but open sources shed no light on his current posting.The archive, obtained from a source within the Ukrainian military, contains not only messages but also videos and photographs documenting the torture and killing of Ukrainian service members. In his exchanges with fellow officers and his wife, the general repeatedly mentioned the severed ears of Ukrainian POWs. As proof of his claims, Demurchiev shared graphic photographs. In one such exchange with his wife, he sent a photo of several ears and said he would “string them into a garland and give them as a gift.”“Like pig ears to go with beer,” his wife responded.Demurchiev frequently discussed the treatment of prisoners of war with a military counterintelligence officer who went by the name “Roman.” In October 2023, the general asked the officer what to do with a Ukrainian captive — whether to kill the man or hand him over for torture. Demurchiev’s contact ultimately took the prisoner. The Ukrainian soldier mentioned in the correspondence later returned home through a prisoner exchange and confirmed that he had been severely beaten and tortured with electric shocks.The messages shared with RFE/RL also indicate that Roman would send prisoners and detainees to the general, requesting that they be killed.In December 2024, Demurchiev discussed a video with his subordinates showing Russian prisoner recruits — convicts inducted into military service — capturing three Ukrainian service members and then beating them to death with shovels. The correspondence indicates that Demurchiev also reported the incident to his superior — 20th Army commander General Oleg Mityaev — who ordered that the prisoner recruits be decorated.Mityaev’s decision to decorate the former convicts was not an aberration. RFE/RL found that the abuse and extrajudicial killings of Ukrainian POWs are common practices in the Russian military, actively encouraged by its leadership, even among senior commanders.
