Russian President Vladimir Putin intended to seize all of Ukraine after beginning his unprovoked invasion, according to a Ukrainian official citing discovered documents.
The director of Ukraine's State Bureau of Investigation — basing his assertions on documents left behind by fleeing Russian soldiers — used Telegram on Wednesday to convey the message.
"[Found were] important documents of soldiers of the Russian Federation's Armed Forces that give a clear understanding that Russia was preparing to seize all the territory of Ukraine," Oleksiy Sukhachev said in the statement.
"All this information will be studied."
Sukhachev added that Ukrainian troops found the documents while searching through the northeastern town of Trostyanets in Sumy Oblast.
Trostyanets, located around 230 miles east of Kyiv, was liberated by Ukrainian troops in late March after a month-long Russian occupation, The New York Times reported.
Sukhachev said Ukrainian officials had inspected nearly eight miles of the destroyed town since its liberation.
Ukrainian soldiers also found a number of unexploded shells and bombs, and saw that more than 300 residential buildings had been permanently damaged, Sukhachev said.
The Telegram post said investigators found places where Russian soldiers tortured civilians.
"At least 34 cases of unlawful deprivation of liberty and torture of civilians have been reported," the post said. "Batons, handcuffs, metal ticks and clothes of the victims with traces of blood were found at the crime scene.
"Among other things, 29 site inspections were conducted, the bodies of 23 victims, including two children, were exhumed."
Although Kremlin officials and many outsiders expected Putin's forces to seize Kyiv within days after beginning their attack Feb. 24, Russia retreated from the capital in early April and refocused their offensive in Ukraine's eastern region, Business Insider reported.
Ukrainian forces reported battlefield gains on Wednesday in a counterattack that could signal a shift in the momentum of the war, while Kyiv shut gas flows on a route through Russian-held territory, raising the specter of an energy crisis in Europe.
Following days of advances north and east of the second largest city Kharkiv, Ukrainian forces were within just several miles of the Russian border on Wednesday morning, one Ukrainian military source said on condition on anonymity.
Material from Reuters was used in preparing this report.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.