On the occasion of the announcement of the event "Commemoration of the Day of Russian Volunteers", the Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina filed a case, and Klix.ba spoke with political scientist Ermin Kuk about the arrival of these volunteers in Bosnia and Herzegovina, their actions during the war and their death at the end.
While waiting for the start of the trial of three members of the Ravnogorsk movement accused of inciting national, racial and religious hatred, discord and intolerance two years ago in Visegrad, the ghosts of the gruesome past are not calming down in that city.
Thus, on the official website of the municipality of Višegrad, it was announced that on Monday, April 12, the Day of Remembrance of Russian Volunteers will be celebrated at the Megdan Military Cemetery. On that April 1993, Russian volunteers Konstantin Bogoslovski, Vladimir Safonov and Dmitrij Popov were killed near Visegrad, so the entity authorities included this date in the calendar of significant events of the RS, and erected a monument to the mercenaries.
A memorial service and an address by officials were announced, along with the usual eulogies about the participation of Russian volunteers in the Patriotic War and their sacrifice.
On the other side of the coin, Russian volunteers are active participants in wartime orgies, atrocities and robberies in the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the period from 1992 to 1995, especially in the Drina valley. Evidence of this is provided in his research by Assoc. Ph.D. Ermin Kuka, senior research associate of the Institute for Research of Crimes against Humanity and International Law of the University of Sarajevo, which were published in an extended version in his book "Genocide over Bosniaks in Visegrad 1992-1995".
Russian volunteers in the service of crime
Kuka reminds that three Russian mercenaries were killed on April 12, 1993 at the Zaglavak elevation in the vicinity of Visegrad, during an attack on the positions of the First Famous Visegrad Brigade ARBIH.
He states that the largest number of foreign military mercenaries and volunteers were recruited from Russia, Ukraine, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, and the group arrivals were organized by the so-called Bureau of the Republic of Srpska in Belgrade. The key Russian man for the arrival was Jaroslav Jastrebov, while the volunteers were met in Belgrade by a certain courier "Brad", a professor of history from Čajnič, who was transferring them to Bosnia and Herzegovina. This is also proven by documents from the command of the 4th Podrinje Light Infantry Brigade sent to the command of the Drina Corps, in which "Brada" offers to bring a number of Russian mercenaries to Rudo.
According to Ermin Kuka's research, the arrival of Russian volunteers and mercenaries in Visegrad in late October and early November 1992 was planned by the Cossack captain Aleksandar Kravchenko, and on November 1, 1992, the Second Russian Volunteer Detachment was formed, which is part of the Visegrad Brigade. VRS, and acted as a special sabotage unit. The Russians also called them "Imperial Wolves". The squad commander was Aleksandar Muharev, known as "Ace".
Evidence and documents
That they were hired for interventions and the execution of active combat operations is evidenced by a series of documents published by Kuka in his book. A letter from the command of the 2nd Podrinja Light Infantry Brigade to the Command of the Drina Corps on January 13, 1993 requested the release of the Cossacks in order to attend the funeral of a murdered Russian volunteer.
"On January 12, 1993, we carried out combat operations, which we informed you about. In that operation, we had wounded and killed, and one of the killed fighters was a Cossack. Given that 13 Cossack fighters are in the Skelani brigade, our fighters "Cossacks request that 13 fighters from Skelan come to Višegrad for the funeral. The funeral will take place in Višegrad on January 14, 1993 at 1:00 p.m.," reads one of the documents.
Attack on Zaglavak
On April 12, 1993, members of the Second United Russian Volunteer Detachment under the command of Mihail Viktorović Trofimov carried out an attack on the Zaglavak and Stolac heights, and the documentary film "Angel from Above Zaglavak" was filmed on this event by order and with the financial support of the Government of the RS- and in cooperation with Vladimir Fedorović Sidorov.
In that film, Sidorov, among other things, says:
"At 7:15 a.m., the battle on Mount Zaglavak began. A little earlier, the battle began on Mount Stolac, where Vladimir Sofanov (1957-12 April 1993) and Dimitrij Popov (1968-12 April 1993) were killed. )."
Both were buried on April 13, 1993 at the Megdan church cemetery in Višegrad. Konstantin the Theological, who was buried in the same cemetery, was also killed in the attack on the Zaglavak hill. Aleksandar Kravchenko, one of the most famous Russian mercenaries on the battlefields around Visegrad, was seriously wounded by shrapnel in the head, as was Vladimir Jeger.
A Russian volunteer who also fought on the battlefields around Visegrad was Igor Vsevolodović Girkin, better known as Igor Ivanović Strelkov. Strelkov was a member of the Second United Russian Volunteer Detachment from November 1992 to March 1993. Although he himself participated in the crimes, he wanted to distance himself from them. In his war diary, among other things, he described Chetnik bloody feasts and atrocities.
"In Visegrad, Muslim men were taken and killed, hundreds of women were imprisoned and mass-raped in the infamous Vilina vlas spa. Women, children and elderly people were locked in houses and burned alive".
In an interview with the portal srpska.ru, Igor Ivanović Strelkov stated, among other things:
Glory to the crime
"We were dilettantes back then, but we all really wanted to fight, probably even more than the Serbs who surrounded us until then. We performed those tasks that in that area, in Visegrad, no one could do. No one except he couldn't do a reconnaissance of us. From that point of view, we were the unit with the highest combat capability in the Second Podrinje Light Infantry Brigade."
Regardless, in 2011, a monument with the names of all the Russian volunteers who died during the aggression against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina was discovered at the church cemetery on Megdan in Višegrad. A total of 37 names of fallen Russian volunteers are engraved on the monument. Also, one street in Višegrad is called "Kozačka ulica".
On the Day of Russian Volunteers in 2017, a memorial cross, 5.5 meters high and weighing about 400 kg, was erected on the Visegrad "Grad" hill in Bikavac with the names of seven Russian volunteers who died on the battlefields around Visegrad. The cross was donated by the Association of Veterans "April 12" from Kosovska Mitrovica, and was unveiled in the presence of Russian Cossacks, Montenegrin volunteers, representatives of veterans' organizations, and representatives of the local government headed by the mayor of Višegrad Municipality, Mladen Đurević.
Source: Klix.ba