Atrocities carried out by Russian forces in Ukraine were not the work of rogue soldiers but organised brutality under the watch of one of Vladimir Putin’s top generals, an investigation has found.

Troops crossing the border from Belarus on February 24 were ordered to block and destroy ‘nationalist resistance’ as they fought their way to Kyiv, according to the Royal United Services Institute, a London think tank that has reviewed copies of Russia’s battle plans.

Soldiers used lists compiled by the intelligence services and conducted ‘zachistka’ — cleansing operations — sweeping neighbourhoods to identify and neutralise anyone who might pose a threat.

Overseeing this phase of the invasion was Colonel General Alexander Chaiko, who earned a global reputation for brutality as leader of Russia’s forces in Syria.

While there is nothing necessarily illegal about the order, it was often implemented with flagrant disregard for the laws of war as Russian troops seized territories across Ukraine.

Witnesses and survivors in Bucha, as well as Ozera, Babyntsi and Zdvyzhivka — all areas under Chaiko’s command — told the Associated Press and PBS series Frontline that Russian soldiers tortured and killed people on the slightest suspicion they might be helping the Ukrainian military.

Sweeps intensified after Russian positions were hit with precision and soldiers were overheard in intercepted phone calls telling loved ones that they’d been ordered to take a no-mercy approach to suspected informants.

Intercepted calls show Russian troops telling their mums, wives and friends back home that they had killed people simply for being outside when ‘real’ civilians would have been hunkered down in basements.

On March 21, a soldier named Vadim tells his mother: ‘We have the order to take phones from everyone and those who resist – in short – to hell with the f***ers.

‘We have the order – it does not matter whether they’re civilians or not. Kill everyone.’

A slight twitch of a curtain – taken to be a possible sign of a spotter or gunman – was enough to justify pummelling an apartment with artillery.

Another soldier was overheard telling his mother: ‘We have the order not to take prisoners of war but to shoot them all dead directly.

‘There was a boy, 18 years old, taken prisoner. First, they shot through his leg with a machine gun, then he got his ears cut off. He admitted everything and was shot dead.

‘We do not take prisoners. Meaning, we don’t leave anyone alive.’

The Dossier Center, a London-based investigative group funded by Russian opposition figure Mikhail Khodorkovsky, verified the identity of the soldiers who made the calls.

Fierce Ukrainian resistance and poor planning pushed Russian troops off their planned line of attack.

Some of them ended up in Bucha, where Ukrainian prosecutors say the 76th Guards Airborne Assault Division – under Chaiko’s command – participated in a lethal cleansing operation on March 4.

Others settled with thousands of other troops in Zdvyzhivka, a tiny village half an hour north of Bucha that became a major forward operating base for the assault on the capital.

They took over the village council building, a cultural centre, a school and set up headquarters in the large white kindergarten.

At the main intersection, near the pond, Russians turned a Baptist church into a field hospital, took over a forestry administration building and commandeered a large ostrich farm for their vehicles and supplies.

In the fields behind the church, locals watched helicopters ferry in supplies and evacuate the wounded.

One woman pointed to an abandoned house at the end of her street which, like dozens of others, were taken over by the invaders.

The soldiers who came and went from that compound were older, professional, spoke like educated men, she and other neighbours said.

They had cars with drivers. They told people what to do. Everyone figured they were officers.

‘That’s where people were killed,’ she added.

The UK sanctioned Chaiko for his actions as leader of Russia’s forces in Syria.

Human Rights Watch says he may bear command responsibility for widespread attacks on hospitals and schools and the use of indiscriminate weapons in populated areas during a notorious campaign in Idlib province in 2019 and 2020.

Ukrainian prosecutors say they don’t have proof Chaiko ordered specific crimes, but it is clear that atrocities were committed under his watch.

In June, the US State Department sanctioned the 76th Guards Airborne Assault Division and its 234th Guards Airborne Assault Regiment, as well as the 64th Separate Motorised Rifle Brigade, for atrocities in Bucha.

Those units were all under the ultimate command of Chaiko, Ukrainian authorities told AP.

Chaiko was spotted at his headquarters in Zdvyzhivka less than a mile from the spot where five men were tortured and killed behind one of the homes occupied by Russian soldiers.

Taras Semkiv, a war crimes prosecutor in the office of Ukraine’s prosecutor general said: ‘When you look at everything that was happening in Zdvyzhivka, it becomes evident that this is not just a singular case, this is their policy for the territory they capture.’

As top commander, Chaiko obviously ‘would have to be aware of what was happening near his headquarters located in the same village,’ he said. ‘It’s only logical.’

But, he added: ‘This has to be proven. And I think we will do it.’

While they seek more specific evidence, Ukrainian prosecutors have indicted Chaiko for the crime of aggression, a broad charge that seeks to hold him responsible for helping to plan and execute an illegal war in Ukraine.

His trial is expected to begin soon in Ukraine. But the dock will almost certainly be empty.

The International Criminal Court has a better chance than Ukraine of extraditing, or capturing, Chaiko one day.

It is currently the only international forum that can hold leaders criminally responsible for wartime atrocities. But it is not a simple task.

The ICC doesn’t have jurisdiction over Russians for the broad crime of aggression because Russia — like the US — never agreed to give it authority to do so.

Instead, prosecutors must link commanders with specific crimes. That makes it hard to build cases against leaders like Chaiko — and Putin.

The Kremlin did not respond to AP’s requests for comment.

But there is no sign Moscow has sanctioned Chaiko for the very public atrocities committed on his watch.

Instead, Putin praised Chaiko for his actions in Syria, awarding him the title ‘Hero of Russia’ in 2020 and promoting him to Colonel General in June 2021.

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