So far, more than 200 children have died in the conflict in Ukraine at the hands of Russian bullets and bombs.
Vladimir Putin‘s troops have been accused of war crimes on numerous occasions and there are many accounts of chilling events at the hands of Russian soldiers.
The latest is perhaps the most harrowing and heartbreaking of all. An audio clip in which a Russian serviceman admits that he enjoys killing people and what he would like to do with Ukrainian children.
Anton Gerashchenko, advisor to Ukraine’s interior minister, shared the recording, which begins with the conversation between Vladimir Kopytov, a 31-year-old Russian serviceman, and his wife, Yulia Kopytova, 30, on the day Mariupol fell into Russian hands.
“There were civilians and I threw them into a trench. I shot them in the head and killed them. They cried and begged me, but I still shot them,” says Kopytov.
The only moment when the soldier disagrees with the Kremlin’s operations comes when he says he is “scared” and fears he has become a “madman”.
“How are we going to live after this? I can kill a man, shoot him in the head,” he asks his wife.
Yulia Kopytova, surprised, does not hesitate to ask her husband if he is proud, to which Vladimir assures her that he “doesn’t care”. “I’m going home safe and sound,” he said.
