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Crime

08th Apr 2022

‘Kill them all’: Chilling audio appears to reveal moment Russian troops ‘ordered to wipe out village’

Danny Jones

German intelligence reportedly intercepted Russian radio transmissions

A chilling audio recording appears to reveal the moment Russian soldiers are told, “kill them all”, in regards to an entire Ukrainian village.

The audio messages were intercepted by German intelligence service Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) and passed on to the news outlet, Der Spiegel on Thursday. The original Russian recording shared by Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence has since been translated.

In the audio, a Russian soldier can be heard noting a passing car with two civilians in it before a commanding officer on the other end orders him to “kill them all”, adding: “What are you waiting for ass-f***ers? Shoot the civilian cars”.

The pair go on to discuss a village 10-15 kilometres down the road supposedly being defended by around 150 Ukrainian soldiers; one soldier then utters a homophobic slur: “I am embarrassed by the facts that those “f****ts are so many here and we are so few”.

Ukraine’s defence ministry said it is still “trying to verify” the intercepted Russian radio message, but a BBC investigation suggested it either occurred on or before March 29, west of the capital Kyiv.

At the moment, it is still unclear where the audio came from, with an exact location yet to be confirmed. While some reports suggest it happened near Mariupol, others believe the recordings supposed proximity to the capital may mean it occurred in Bucha – the city which has reportedly been subjected to numerous killings and other atrocities in recent days and weeks.

Ukraine has reported that hundreds of bodies have been found piled up in mass graves, with President Zelenskyy claiming that civilians have been subjected to rape and torture, including having their tongues cut out. The transmissions connection to Bucha has been made using the satellite images which captured said mass graves earlier this month.

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