The plunder and violence unleashed in occupied Ukraine have reached Russia’s own towns

[Starmix]

According to the report, when Russian soldiers spilled into Ukraine in February 2022, reports soon followed of rampant looting in captured towns. Homes, museums, theaters — even schools — were stripped of everything from food and clothing to computers and washing machines.

The report also stated that stories of theft and destruction revealed the brutality of Moscow’s invasion. Today, a growing body of evidence shows that the Russian military has also inflicted some of this cruelty on its own people, Meduza media outlet says. On November 5, 2025, after a region-wide manhunt, soldiers in Belgorod captured one of their own, Alexey Kostrikin, who murdered a local homeowner and raped his wife in late October before killing again on November 3.

Additionally, Kostrikin is one of more than 170,000 violent criminals recruited from prisons and pretrial detention centers to fight in Ukraine. According to Novaya Gazeta Europe, he joins the more than 1,130 ex-con veterans who came back from the front in the war’s first two years only to resume a life of crime.

 

[gwolf666]

What is recounted in that news report is very shocking and reveals the true magnitude of the conflict and its consequences. War not only brings destruction to invaded countries, but it also brings out the worst in people, even those who should be defending their country. The story of Kostrikin and other criminals recruited from prison shows how the military system sometimes resorts to people with violent histories, which clearly exacerbates the situation. It is sad to think that in the midst of war, such serious crimes are mixed together and that many of these soldiers return to their former lives of violence. This also gives an idea of the severity of the problem of recidivism and the lack of options for those in prison. War, in many cases, only ends up worsening social and personal circumstances, leaving deep wounds in society and in the people involved.

 

[Starmix]

It stated that stories of theft and destruction revealed the brutality of Moscow’s invasion, and this will continue as long as war between the two countries Russia and Ukraine continue.