Putin’s ‘butcher of Bucha’ commander ‘oversaw rape and genocide of Ukrainians’ weeks after being blessed by priest

A RUSSIAN commander dubbed the "Butcher of Bucha" after overseeing the rape and murder of innocent Ukrainians was recently blessed by the Orthodox Church.

Lieutenant Colonel Azatbek Omurbekov has been named and shamed following troops' "utterly inhuman" conduct when occupying the city.

He is the commander of the 64th Separate Motorised Rifle Brigade, who left a trail of death and destruction in their wake before their retreat.

The town on the outskirts of the capital is now littered with mass graves and corpses rotting in the street as survivors suffer untold trauma.

Attention has now fallen onto the leader of the barbarous pack, Omurbekov, after his identity was exposed online.

The "Butcher of Bucha", who is believed to be around 40, has now been accused of directing the horrific rape and slaughter of hundreds of Ukrainians.

InformNapalm, a Ukrainian volunteer initiative that monitors the activities of the Russian military and special services, discovered he is a seasoned veteran and commander of unit 51460.

Omurbekov, whose unit is based in a town outside Khabarovsk in the Russian Far East, was blessed by an Orthodox priest in November.

Before his deployment to Ukraine to inflict atrocities on innocents, the Bishop of Khabarovsk led a service for the warmonger.

The commander said after the ceremony: "History shows that we fight most of our battles with our souls.

"Weapons are not the most important thing. The church is a place where we can take communion and prepare for the coming events.

"With the blessing of the Almighty, we hope to achieve the same things that our forebears achieved."

Omurbekov was handed a medal for outstanding service back in 2014 by the deputy Russian defence minister, Dmitry Bulgakov.

The Butcher is now at the centre of a probe into the rape, pillage and murder of hundreds of Ukrainians.

International law states a military commander is responsible for any war crimes committed by his troops.

Volunteers group Tretya Sila said: "In Bucha, there was a military unit 51460 from the village of Knyaze-Volkonskoye, Khabarovsk region. 

"Soon all these murderers, rapists and looters will be known by name." 

KREMLIN'S DENIAL

Ukrainian reporter Evgeny Spirin spoke of the harrowing cruelty Putin's men had inflicted upon civilians - specifically women and children.

He said: "Some of the killed children had their arms tied up. Children…. They were tying up children.

"There were shot dogs. Killed women. Irpen, Bucha, Dmitrievka. How to live with this, and is it worth living at all? 

"How do I explain this to myself, how? They must cease to exist. 

"They must all be destroyed, each and every one of them, turned into dust, into mud, into clay, all of them."

The Kremlin has denied accusations its troops committed war crimes in Ukraine and have gone as far as trying to suggest chilling pictures of dead bodies strewn across Kyiv streets were staged by Ukraine and the West to discredit Putin.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky fought back tears as he visited Bucha on Monday.

The Ukrainian leader, who was visibly emotional, was flanked by security as he vowed to ensure that the “war crimes” committed by Russian soldiers on his country’s soil were “the last such evil on Earth”.

Indeed, this is genocide. The elimination of the whole nation and the people.

President Volodymyr Zelensky

Harrowing pictures from the city showed the bodies of civilians scattered in the road and in shallow graves —  many with bound hands and signs of torture.

Some of them, from the wounds they had suffered, had been shot from close range.

Heavily mutilated corpses of what appear to be men scattered the floor of a children's camp as rescue workers carried the innocent victims out in body bags.

A local priest said dogs have been seen eating rotting corpses in apocalyptic scenes to grip the commuter town after Russian butchers laid waste to hundreds of innocent civilians.

Men, women and children were found handcuffed with a bullet in the head and chest - their bodies strewn in the streets and dumped in drains.

Women and children have also been found by Ukrainian soldiers, having been raped and then murdered.

Ukrainian officials have said at least 410 bodies have been recovered from the area, with many more feared.

Barbaric Russian troops are believed to have conducted the Bucha slaughter as they scarpered from Kyiv after their botched attempt to take the Ukrainian capital.

While the  at least half a dozen civilian vehicles remained where they had crashed after being mown down by gunfire - one blood splattered car had the word 'child' etched on it.

Andriy Holovin, the priest of the Church of St Andrew Pervozvannoho All Saints, said: "We brought people here from the streets because the dogs were trying to eat the bodies."

Chilling satellite images of the church shows an open 45 feet long trench - believed to have been dug on March 1 when Russia was in control of the region - it has around 60 bodies in.