A tragic and disturbing event took place in a Russian village called Giryi, located in the Kursk region near the border with Ukraine. A Russian soldier shot and killed a mother of three children inside her own home late at night on April 30. The woman, 41-year-old Oleysa Larina, was with her husband and three children two of whom are young girls, aged 10 and six when the soldier entered their house.
Her son, Ilya Larin, said the soldier stormed in and immediately began shooting after demanding to see their ID papers. He shot Oleysa dead and then shot her husband in the head as he tried to protect the children. The father is now in a coma in the hospital. Thankfully, the two young girls were not injured. The soldier has since been arrested, and local authorities say he was likely under the influence of drugs during the attack.
Residents of the Kursk region have expressed growing fear about Russian soldiers stationed nearby. Many say that these soldiers are often drunk or high and act aggressively. Some locals even say they’re more afraid of Russian troops than of attacks from Ukrainian forces.
This is not an isolated case. There have been many reports of Russian soldiers killing or seriously injuring civilians in their own country after returning from fighting in Ukraine. An independent Russian news outlet, Vyorstka, investigated these cases and found that at least 107 people have been killed by soldiers who came back from the war. Some of these soldiers were criminals who had been released from prison in exchange for agreeing to fight. Their crimes included murder and rape even before they were sent to the front lines.
The research also showed that many of these returning soldiers have committed violent crimes, including murder, assault, and causing deadly car accidents. Over 100 other people have survived serious attacks from these men.
The Russian government has been heavily relying on prisoners to fill its army, offering them freedom in return for fighting in Ukraine. Sadly, some of these men have returned home and continued committing crimes, adding to the suffering of ordinary Russian citizens.
