Putin’s shadowy forces have sadistic ‘blood ritual’ targeting innocent civilians --[Reported by Umva mag]

The grim work of a Russian special forces unit hosing down Ukrainian vehicles with gunfire is only the beginning of an even darker story.

Vladimir Putin’s ‘Senezh’ fighters have been shown in clips ambushing targets before dragging the bodies from soft-skinned jeeps and SUVs.

Some of the targets are military, but in other cases it is not so clear.

Underneath the flashy video footage aimed at portraying the image of an elite, well-equipped unit lies a litany of atrocities, according to an investigation by the Molfar open-source intelligence agency.  

Senezh is suspected of being behind war crimes, including the murder of civilians, in north-eastern Ukraine close to the border with Russia.  

The formation is believed to have a ‘blood ritual’ where junior members bring back a dead enemy soldier or, failing that, a civilian. 

On the surface, Senezh is tasked with sabotage and reconnaissance, with members recruited from special forces and intelligence units.  

However, civilians in the border areas are the most common targets as the fighters ‘leave destruction and death in their wake’ amid Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, according to the researchers.

Members are shown in videos where they and another special forces unit named Kubinka-2 conduct operations including ambushing Ukrainian targets before hauling the bodies out of the bullet-riddled vehicles.  

The clips are intended to show the operators’ battlefield prowess and also appear to show scenes of the personnel using FPV drones and conducting surgical strikes and night missions. 

Molfar’s founder and CEO Artem Starosiek told Metro.co.uk: ‘We started looking into Senezh a year ago because we had seen a short video on a Russian Telegram channel where they looked like special forces taking part in high-level military operations.  

‘We began researching this video and started making connections with civilians being killed in northern Ukraine in the Sumy and Kharkiv regions.  

‘My friends in Ukrainian intelligence had also followed these cases and pointed us to Senezh. 

‘Our research included documenting cases of civilians being killed in these regions, including a milk cart driver who was hit by an FPV drone and guns.’ 

Senezh was sent to the border of the Kharkiv and Sumy oblasts at the outset of Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, according to Molfar.   

The unit was then deployed to Russia’s Belgorod region in 2023 because of intensified partisan activity in the area, the analysts found.  

The soldiers were tasked with conducting anti-sabotage operations and to protect border areas. However, links were made between Senezh and war crimes carried out by Russian forces against civilians in the volatile areas.  

Testimony from Ukrainian residents living in the cross-hairs of Russia’s aerial bombardment and cross-border raids has been gathered by Molfar. 

One villager, named Valentyna, told how she lost her husband on January 10 this year during one attack by the Kremlin’s forces.

She said: ‘He drove to take our son to the hospital. It was early and still dark.

‘I was waiting for him to return, but he didn’t.

‘His phone was not answering, and there was shelling outside. I knew something terrible had happened before it was even confirmed. 

‘His car was completely shot up. There was not a single living thing left in it.’ 

Valentyna, who spoke under a pseudonym, now lives alone in Kostobobriv, which lies in the Chernihiv region a kilometre from the Russian border.  

Her two sons are serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.  

Valentyna is convinced that Russian forces carrying out indiscriminate shelling and cross-border raids are responsible for her husband’s death  

Other evidence collected by Molfar includes pictures of shot-up civilian vehicles, consistent with the terrain and type of ambush that Senezh has made public showing attacks on military and ill-defined targets.

In one, the bodies of two civilians who were riding a motorcycle are shown lying in a wood, while in another a body lies next to the passenger’s side door of a power company car showing bullet scars.  

Civilians are said to be fair game for Senezh, with Molfar’s Ukrainian intelligence service contacts describing a ‘blood ritual’ for junior soldiers.

The lower ranks are said to be challenged to cross over the border and ‘bring a killed Ukrainian’ — either a soldier or a civilian.  

‘Despite its non-public nature, Senezh is an elite unit of the Russian Federation,’ Molfar’s investigation reads.

‘Their operations leave destruction and death in their wake, and most often, it is civilians living in the border area who suffer from their actions.’ 

Senezh has also appeared on the radar of Kyiv’s special services, who have been hunting the unit for more than a year.

Ukraine’s investigators regard the Russian formation as ‘top secret’ and ‘highly dangerous’, according to Molfar. 

‘My friends in Ukrainian intelligence told me that one of the rituals for a junior soldier wanting to become an officer is to cross the border and kill a Ukrainian soldier, or failing that, a civilian, and bring the body back to Russian territory,’ Starosiek said: 

‘Senezh is being used to kill civilians, in violation of the rules of war, and shows how far Russia has sunk as it terrorizes the Ukrainian population.’ 

Active in Ukraine since Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, Senezh has since been deployed across the country’s north-eastern regions, including the Donbas, Sumy, Chernihiv and Kharkiv.

The most recent deployment is thought to be in the approximate region of Belgorod where Moscow has been on the back foot due to partisan activity and incursions by Ukrainian forces.  

Further light was shed on Senezh in July when six Russian officers connected to the outfit were killed during close-quarters fighting in Chernihiv.  

The men, who were equipped with thermal imaging sights, were described as ‘Russian saboteurs’ by a Ukrainian Telegram channel, which said they had been ‘eliminated’ by a reconnaissance group near the village of Mkhiy. 

Senezh was described as the ‘elite of the elite’ by the platform, which said the defenders are worthy of high state honours for their actions.  

Personal documents, notebooks, mobile phones and open source information has been used by Ukrainian intelligence and Molfar to unmask the 322nd Senezh Special Operations Center personnel. 

Another Senezh member, Major Ivan Afanasyev, was ‘liquidated’ by Ukrainian forces earlier in July, according to Molfar and open sources.

The Ukrainian military was said to be searching a forest. also in the Chernihiv region, when they found the Crimea and Syria veteran’s body, left after his unit was ambushed by homeland troops.

The analysts are continuing their work to shed light on the unit, which they believe has hundreds of military personnel.  

‘Although Senezh is quite secret we discovered from Russian databases, including at the tax office, and social media that there are about 300 members of this unit,’ Starosiek said. 

‘We have shared our research with the Ukrainian intelligence services and I am positive that these war criminals will be brought to justice.’ 

Senezh is not the only Russian unit suspected of committing war crimes in Ukraine while acting outside of the conventional military structure.  

The activities of semi-state formations have previously been highlighted by Molfar, including those of the Wagner group, Patriot, which may be a broad name for a number of interlinked groups, and Rusich.

The latter, said to have ties to Wagner, is led by fighters with neo-Nazi views and has left behind ‘serious evidence’ of war crimes in Ukraine, according to the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group.   

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