Russia detains commander of brigade that committed atrocities in Bucha – media

Russian military intelligence has detained Artem Gorodilov, commander of the 83rd separate airborne assault brigade of the Russian Armed Forces, in Ryazan. The colonel, who was involved in the atrocities in Ukrainian Bucha, is suspected of fraud on a large scale.

Ukrainian media reported this on July 4, while Russian propagandists claimed that the officer had already been sent to Moscow for investigation. He has long been under sanctions from the United States and other countries for war crimes committed by him and his subordinates during the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

According to propagandists, Horodilov's case under Part 4 of Article 159 of the Russian Criminal Code (especially large-scale fraud) is being investigated by the Main Military Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation. Then the materials will be sent to the 235th Garrison Military Court with a request to impose a preventive measure on the suspected colonel.

At the same time, the Russians themselves do not know what kind of embezzlement and for what amount the military commander is accused of. According to the Criminal Code, "especially large scale" starts at 1 million rubles.

Russian Artem Gorodilov graduated from the Ryazan Higher Airborne School and the General Military Academy and served in the 76th Airborne Division of the Russian Armed Forces. He was also the chief of staff, and since 2019, the commander of the 234th Airborne Assault Regiment of the Black Sea.

In April 2022, the then-Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu prematurely promoted the occupier to the rank of "Guards Colonel" for war crimes in the Kyiv region. Later, he was appointed commander of the Ussuriisk separate airborne troops, and in May, RosTv called him the commander of the 83rd separate airborne troops of the Russian Armed Forces stationed in Ussuriisk. At the same time, Gorodilov is being prosecuted as the commander of an airborne assault regiment.

In 2023, the Russian officer was included in the sanctions lists of persons banned from entering the United States. His name was mentioned in publications of Ukrainian and Western media about the crimes committed by Russian troops at the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

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