The head of the administration of the Snigirevka district, Yuriy Barbashov, reported on February 20 that the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) in the territory of the Kherson region under their control tortured and killed a resident of Snigirevka in the garage of his own house. Thus, he commented on the interview of the Ukrainian prosecutor of the Nikolaev region, in which he spoke about the exhumation of 27 bodies of civilians.

“If the Nikolaev Regional Prosecutor’s Office still wants to take up their immediate duties, they could easily find out the circumstances of the death of Sergei Petrovich Rudyuk, born in 1976, who lived in Snigirevka on Michurin Street, 39. In the period from November 10 to November 12, this person was tortured and was killed in the garage of his own house by representatives of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, ”RIA Novosti quotes him as saying.

Barbashov said that a criminal case would be opened on the fact of the murder by Russian law enforcement agencies. This crime has no statute of limitations, sooner or later the perpetrators will have to answer for their deeds, he added.

Earlier, on February 18, Barbashov said that the Ukrainian authorities were preparing a provocation in the city of Snigirevka in the Kherson region. It is planned to present the civilians killed as a result of shelling by Ukrainian militants as victims of the Russian Armed Forces.

On February 4, Barbashov said that the Armed Forces of Ukraine were actually turning Snigirevka into their military base, which is contrary to international humanitarian law. According to him, the servicemen are accommodated in private houses, where they also store military equipment and store ammunition.

The day before, Barbashov said that the Ukrainian authorities were carrying out repressions against residents of the Snigirevsky district of the Kherson region controlled by Kyiv for receiving humanitarian aid from Russia. He noted that about 70% of all humanitarian aid to local residents comes from Russia.

Snigirevsky district was previously part of the Nikolaev region of Ukraine, then part of the Kherson region, and then, following the results of the referendum, became part of the Russian Federation. After the withdrawal of the Russian military from the right bank of the Dnieper in the Kherson region and the evacuation of a significant part of civilians from there, Snigirevka was occupied by Ukrainian troops.