MOSCOW: Moscow on Friday accused Ukrainian troops of killing 22 people in an occupied Russian village, including eight women who were allegedly raped before being executed.
\nUkraine controls dozens of border settlements in the Kursk region of western Russia since launching a surprise offensive in August and says about 2,000 civilians still live in areas it occupies.
\nRussia has now retaken several towns.
\nRussia\u2019s Investigative Committee had said on January 19 it was investigating the killing of \u201cat least seven civilians\u201d in the village of Russkoye Porechnoye, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the Ukrainian border.
\nOn Friday, it said it was now investigating the killing of \u201c22 residents\u201d between September and November.
\nAmong the victims, whose bodies were found in the basements of several homes, were eight women who were allegedly raped before being killed, the Investigative Committee said.
\nAFP was not immediately able to verify the claims and there has been no official response from Ukraine.
\nRussian investigators blame five Ukrainian soldiers for the killings and said one of them, Yevgeny Fabrisenko, was arrested during the fighting in the Kursk region.
\nThe committee released a video of the interrogation of a man identified as Fabrisenko, who confessed.
\nAt a briefing on Friday, Russia\u2019s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said: \u201cFirst people were tortured, abused, then killed either by being shot or blown up.\u201d
\nRussia and Ukraine have accused each other of killing civilians since the conflict began nearly three years ago.
\nRussian forces are accused of murdering hundreds of civilians in the town of Bucha, near Kyiv. AFP journalists are among the international media outlets that have seen and photographed the bodies of Ukrainian civilians killed, some with their hands tied.
\nMoscow has denied the allegations and accused Kyiv of staging the footage \u2014 a claim that has been rejected by several independent fact-checking organizations and media outlets, including AFP.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MOSCOW: Moscow on Friday accused Ukrainian troops of killing 22 people in an occupied Russian village, including eight women who were allegedly raped before being executed. Ukraine controls dozens of border settlements in the Kursk region of western Russia since launching a surprise offensive in August and says about 2,000 civilians still live in areas […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458714,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-458703","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n