Russian Soldiers Allegedly Stole Wine, Washing Machine, Sofa From Abandoned Ukraine Homes

Russian soldiers who occupied several cities in Ukraine are now being accused of looting homes that residents abandoned amid the war.

Natalia Samson, a deputy teacher in the village of Novyi Bykiv, said she returned to her home a month after the occupation only to find that Russian troops had pillaged her house, taking with them perfumes, jewelry, wine, a scooter and a collection of old coins.

Samson said other homes in the village were also ransacked. Some homes were missing washing machines, food, laptops and a sofa.

“People saw them simply loading everything onto Ural trucks, everything they could get their hands on,” Samson told The Guardian in an interview.

The publication also reported that Russian soldiers were found living in an abandoned home in the town of Irpin, located just outside the capital city of Kyiv. One family returned to their house to discover that Russian troops had stayed there, as they found discarded liquor bottles, food wrappers and cigarette butts. The family also told The Guardian that the soldiers had blocked their toilets with large piles of feces.

Reports of looting come as a surveillance video released by the Hajun Project, a Belarusian investigative media project, showed Russian soldiers shuffling about the offices of CDEK while wrapping and stuffing clothing, TVs, tools and other items into packages. CDEK is a Russian express delivery company.

The Hajun Project said at least 128 packages totaling nearly 3,000 kilograms of freight were sent to the Russian town of Rubtsovsk. The town is located in the southern Altai Krai region and is known for hosting at least four Russian prison facilities.

The Russian soldiers also sent packages to other places, including Gornyak, Chita, Zheleznogorsk, Omsk, Ulyanovsk, Novosibirsk, Moscow, Angarsk, Ussuriysk and Birobidzhan, according to the monitoring group.

Looting homes is one of the many crimes that Russian soldiers have done during the war in Ukraine. Russian troops are also accused of stealing more than 130 radioactive materials from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant as well as the raping and slaying of Ukrainian civilians in cities they occupied.