Nine family members were shot to death while asleep in their beds in the Russian-occupied eastern Ukrainian city of Volnovakha, CNN reported Tuesday.
Ukraine alleges the family members, including two children, were killed by Russian occupying soldiers in the aftermath of an argument, with the Ukrainian Donetsk Region Prosecutor's Office saying that armed men in "military uniform demanded that the family living there vacate the house to accommodate a Russian army unit" earlier this month.
Based on preliminary information, the office said that when the owner refused to vacate the house, "the attackers threatened his family members with physical violence and left," with gunman returning days later, when they "shot all nine members of the family, who were already asleep at that time."
Volnovakha has been occupied by the Russian army since March 2022, the first month of the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine.
In a separate investigation of the incident, Russian authorities said that two of its servicemen were detained on Monday in connection with the murders.
The Russian probe corroborated the death toll, but did not mention the other details of the murders cited by the Ukrainian report, according to The Kyiv Independent.
The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the so-called Donetsk People's Republic said in a statement that the suspects identified are "Russian military servicemen from the Far East serving under contract."
The Russians probe said the first information gathered leads investigators to believe that "the motive of the crime was a conflict on domestic grounds."
The horrific murder comes amid the backdrop of the Ukrainian army holding out this month against a renewed Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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