1 of 4 | The Ukrainian security services say two brothers, including Volodymyr Mamon shown here, from the village of Hroza helped the Russian military target a gathering of civilians who were killed by a Russian strike on Thursday. Photo courtesy of SBU
Ukrainian officials accused two brothers from the village of Hroza, in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, of helping Russian forces carry out a missile attack on the town that killed 53 people Thursday.
“Russian terror must be stopped. Everyone who helps circumvent sanctions are criminals. Those who continue to support Russia are all supporting evil,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday. Advertisement
According to the SBU, Ukraine’s internal security services, the suspects collaborated with the Russian military.
“On October 5, the security service identified the two traitors, who corrected the Russian missile attack on a cafe in the village of Hroza, Kharkiv region, ‘on hot pursuit,'” the SBU said in a Telegram post.
“The perpetrators were two local residents, 30-year-old Volodymyr Mamon and his younger brother, 23-year-old Dmytro Mamon, who during the occupation of the region went over to the side of the Rashists [derogatory term for Russian racists],” the SBU continued.
The SBU said the two brothers had been given positions with the Russian occupation authorities.
“The defendants received ‘positions’ in the ranks of the occupying ‘Department of Internal Affairs of the Military-Civil Administration of the Kharkiv Region.’ There one of them was appointed ‘driver of the convoy group,’ the other — ‘inspector of the road patrol service,'” the SBU continued. Advertisement
The security services said the brothers fled to Russia after the area was retaken by Ukrainian forces and reached out to residents “under the guise of friendly conversation” to glean information about a Ukrainian military burial, attended by civilians.
“From the beginning of October this year, both parties began to collect information about the planned reburial of the fallen Ukrainian defender in the village of Hroza,” the SBU said. “Having learned the exact address of the peaceful event, Volodymyr Mamon gave this information to the Russian occupiers.”
According to the SBU, the brothers knew their neighbors would be killed.
“They understood that as a result of the enemy attack, civilians — their acquaintances from the village of Hroza, including those who provided them with information would surely die,” The SBU said.
The security services released images of the two men along with images of identity cards given to them by Russian occupation forces.
