Buryats in Bucha: the Biggest Myth of the War

After the first news from Bucha emerged, we were shocked by the footage of murdered civilians and destruction. Equally shocking for us were the reports of "mass atrocities by Buryats," which prompted us to immediately verify the details and check data from open sources. It turned out that behind the sensational headlines about "mass atrocities" and the involvement of Buryats (or at least Asians) lies a far less sensational content. Bucha is not the only place where war crimes were committed; however, rumors of "Buryat atrocities" began specifically with it.

So, let's take it step by step. During the fighting in Bucha and the nearly month-long Russian occupation of the city, several hundred civilians died. After the Russian occupation, 458 bodies were found, 419 of which showed signs of torture or violent death. The first reports of evidence of targeted mass killings of civilians in Bucha appeared on April 1.

By April 4, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine published a list of servicemen from the 64th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade of the Russian Armed Forces (from the Khabarovsk region), who were accused by the Ukrainian side of war crimes in Bucha.

Ukrainian volunteers from the "InformNapalm" community immediately established that this list was outdated by four years and that many of those involved in the 2022 invasion were not included, and some had long since retired from the army. Subsequently, we independently confirmed this conclusion.

Shortly after the information about the Bucha tragedy surfaced on April 3, journalist Lilia Rahutskaya published old (from 2019/2020) photographs of Yakut conscripts from the 64th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade with the flag of Yakutia, labeling them as "Buryat occupiers who committed atrocities in Bucha." Despite the obvious falsification, these photos spread across the internet and in the media. It is important to note that the photo of the soldiers from Yakutia has nothing to do with Bucha: it is an old picture taken in 2019/2020 at the unit's location in the Khabarovsk region. Many of those captured in the photo had long completed their military service and returned home.

By the end of April, another story emerged, claiming that "Buryats were mass raping and shooting people." This story is an obvious and crude forgery aimed at an uninformed and gullible audience. Essentially, it is the equivalent of the "crucified boy" narrative. Ukrainian journalist Dmytro Kanibolotsky, whose parents were in Bucha during the Russian occupation, detailed and debunked this story. According to him, "not a single Buryat or Yakut (and not a single Chechen) was seen among the occupiers in Bucha…"

On May 8, the former Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada for Human Rights, Lyudmyla Denisova, without justification, attributed the war crimes in Bucha specifically to Buryats, emphasizing that "the most brutal were the Buryats and Kadyrovites." "And we will tell about them, repeat their stories until it reaches all citizens of all states that can make the decision to, firstly, give us weapons, and secondly, to increase sanctions against the Russian elite to make sure Putin is gone, to stop this entire war," the official stated.

Recall that on May 31, 2022, the Verkhovna Rada dismissed Denisova from the position of Human Rights Commissioner, partly due to her extremely reckless rhetoric about war crimes. Nevertheless, her "sensational" statement about the particular brutality of Buryats in Bucha had already spread among the public. No one else, apart from us, seems interested in uncovering the truth.

The "Free Buryatia" Foundation, having examined the lists of the deceased in early May, noted that the main suspects should be the Pskov paratroopers. We speculated that the Pskov paratroopers were likely the "strong Slavic guys" referred to by the adviser to the Office of the President of Ukraine, Oleksiy Arestovych. We also noted that the Russian servicemen known to have died in Bucha were almost exclusively Pskov paratroopers (from the 76th Airborne Division), and there was not a single Buryat among them, nor any servicemen from the 64th Brigade. The contract soldier reported missing in Bucha, mentioned recently by Radio Liberty, was also from the 76th Airborne Division. Captured Pskov paratrooper Tymofiy Bobov told Vladimir Zolkin in an interview that he and other soldiers from his regiment "went into Bucha to clear it out." However, as Kirill Mikhailov (Conflict Intelligence Team) claims, the servicemen from the 64th Motorized Rifle Brigade were likely in the surrounding area, not in Bucha itself.

In an investigation by Yekaterina Fomina from the publication "Important Stories," it is also mentioned that servicemen from the 64th Brigade occupied the village of Andriivka (located west of Bucha), and their commander, Azatbek Omurbekov, set up headquarters in the basement of a school there. It should be noted that no "Buryats" are mentioned in this investigation.

Over time, substantial investigations and articles have confirmed our assumptions. According to data from open sources (both Russian and Ukrainian) and investigations published by Reuters, the New York Times, "Novaya Gazeta," and "Important Stories," the main suspects in the war crimes in Bucha are the so-called Pskov paratroopers.

On May 5, the founder of Conflict Intelligence Team, Ruslan Leviev, stated that, according to their data, the Pskov paratroopers were responsible for the war crimes in Bucha: "Although the 64th Brigade was there, the main atrocities were committed by the paratroopers." He also reported a negative reaction from the Ukrainian public to the publication of this information (presumably due to the perception that the 64th Motorized Rifle Brigade had already been established as the main war criminals): "All of Ukrainian society turned against us, as if we were justifying them [the war criminals]—although, of course, that's not the case. But in fact, we see that yes, it was the paratroopers who committed the main atrocities in Bucha."

On June 23, an investigation titled "Bucha 22" aired on the Ukrainian channel "Suspilne Novyny," stating that it was indeed the Pskov paratroopers, as well as the 51st and 137th Regiments of the 106th Airborne Division from Tula and Ryazan, that were present in Bucha. It was reported that it was their BMD that shot at a person on a bicycle, whose body was found after the city was liberated, and that Pskov paratroopers from the 104th Air Assault Regiment shot at civilian vehicles on the streets of Bucha. The aforementioned Reuters investigation also mentions the "Vityaz" special forces (part of the National Guard) and "Kadyrovites."

Returning to the 64th Motorized Rifle Brigade from Khabarovsk, according to the soldier lists we examined, as of 2018, ethnic Buryats made up about 1.9% of the personnel in the 64th Motorized Rifle Brigade (and it is unlikely that the composition of this unit has significantly changed since then). Moreover, only a portion of this unit was in the Bucha area. Thus, the maximum number of Russian servicemen who were ethnic Buryats in Bucha could have been just a few individuals (if they were there at all).

It is necessary to mention Private Albert Radnaev, who was included in the list of suspects in Bucha (for illegal detention and causing bodily harm to civilians), published on April 28, 2022, on the Facebook page of Ukraine’s Attorney General Iryna Venediktova. On the same day, Radio Liberty and the "Belsat" channel published notes stating that they had managed to contact Radnaev, who claimed that he was not involved in the crimes in Bucha and had not served in the army for two years. We also decided to investigate whether there might have been a mistake, and if Albert Radnaev was telling the truth. The answer is likely affirmative. With the emergence of other suspects involved in the events in Bucha with "non-Slavic appearances"—Chingiz Atantaev, Azat Omurbekov, and Pyotr Zakharov—many in the comments on social media immediately labeled them as Buryats, even though they have no connection to Buryatia.

The narrative about Buryats in Bucha seemed to be a highly clickable sensational piece. In the absence of concrete facts, some bloggers and journalists resorted to fabricating information. For example, blogger Anatoly Anatolich released a video investigation about Zorigto Zhigzhitov—a Buryat from the 64th Motorized Rifle Brigade who "committed atrocities" and "raped" in Bucha. As an introduction, he also includes fragments of statements from Lyudmyla Denisova, which we mentioned above. A minor oversight in Anatoly Anatolich's investigation is simply that Zorigto Zhigzhitov resigned from the Russian army in 2019 and has no connection to the ongoing events in Ukraine. He sent us copies of documents confirming this. We prepared a separate piece on our YouTube channel.

We believe that errors or negligence in identifying suspects or publishing information about them can lead not only to accusations against innocent people but also to the impunity of real criminals.

Therefore, we sincerely hope that journalists and bloggers will