Two soldiers from North Ossetia have allegedly attacked military police personnel at a checkpoint in an Russian-occupied area of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region near the town of Vasylivka during a document check. As a result, the two Ossetian soldiers were shot, with one dying and the other being wounded.
According to the Telegram-channel ChP Ossetia, a civilian car, a Lada Vesta, was stopped for an identity check on Sunday night. Instead of presenting their papers, the Ossetian soldiers in uniform inside the vehicle attacked the checkpoint personnel and tried to seize their weapons. After the attempt failed, they tried to flee.
The official report stated that checkpoint personnel opened fire at the vehicle’s tyres and then at the car itself. The vehicle was found approximately two kilometres from the checkpoint.
As documents found in the car indicate, the deceased was 30-year old Artur Fattakhov, 30, a native of the North Ossetian town of Digora; and the wounded man was 35-year old Georgy Bekuzarov, from the North Ossetian village of Tsrau in Alagir district.
Both men are reported to be soldiers of the 429th motor-rifle regiment, 19th motor-rifle division, 58th army of the Southern Military District. According to unconfirmed reports, Bekuzarov was wanted — he allegedly left his unit without permission in May.
A similar incident with North Ossetian soldiers was reported in the same town of Vasylivka in 2022. According to social media reports at the time, four newly mobilised men from North Ossetia got drunk on a farm, killed 13 head of cattle, and drove the farm owner off the premises. The same reports said they subsequently attacked soldiers guarding the farm, beat them, stole a vehicle from workers and fired on the move, injuring a Russian sergeant. The suspects — Khetag Berdiev, Ruslan Khostikoev, and two brothers surnamed Avlokhov — were later detained.
Sergei Menyailo, Head of North Ossetia, commented on the latest incident, calling the behaviour of his compatriots disgraceful and urging not to equate isolated criminal acts with the valour of fighters in the Alania and Ossetia units, whom he praised for discipline and heroism at the front in Ukraine.
‘Saying I am ashamed of these people is an understatement,’ Menyailo said.
In autumn 2022, former police officer Vadim Tekhov from Vladikavkaz was detained with drugs in the occupied territory of Ukraine. A year earlier, he had been sentenced to 16 years in a strict regime colony for the brutal murder of his ex-wife, whom he stabbed nearly two dozen times.
In 2022, RFE/RL reported that soldiers from North Ossetia have repeatedly been prosecuted for drunkenness.
Elizaveta Chukharova
