Near Kyiv, Russian invaders shot a relative of Navalny: the oppositionist is sure that this is because of the surname

Jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said on April 19 that Russian soldiers killed a 60-year-old man named Ilya Navalny in Bucha, apparently only because he bore Navalny's last name, reports Voice of America.

Photo: Shutterstock

Russian troops retreated from Bucha last month, and Ukrainian authorities said they found more than 400 dead bodies of people who were killed by Russian troops when the area was occupied.

Navalny tweeted a photograph of a passport bearing the name of Ilya Ivanovich Navalny, which he said was deliberately left next to his dead body in Bucha.

“A completely innocent person was killed by Putin’s executioners (well, what else to call them? Not ‘Russian soldiers’) because we have namesakes with him,” Navalny wrote. Apparently, they hoped that a relative.

“That’s why they threw the passport nearby demonstratively,” the politician noted.

“I remember as a child I was amazed when I looked at the monument to those killed in the Great Patriotic War. I’m used to the fact that my surname is rare, and there are several Navalnys in a row. Well, now there will be another monument in Ukraine to those killed in the war, where, among others, there will be Ilya Ivanovich Navalny, born in 1961,” noted Alexey.

A resident of Bucha, Ilya Navalny, who died during the occupation of the city by Russian troops, turned out to be a distant relative of the Russian politician Alexei Navalny, reports Currently, with reference to their common relative, the headman of the village of Novoye Zalesye, Pavel Navalny.

“Yes, Ilya was a distant relative of Alexei, he has a common great-grandfather,” said the headman, who, according to journalists, is himself the politician’s second cousin.

On the subject: Russia is forced to take its diplomats out of Europe in a roundabout way and almost broke the world record for the duration of an air flight

Earlier, the German publication Bild reported on the murder of a 61-year-old relative of the Russian politician. Experts found bullet wounds in Navalny: in the head and chest, and the body itself was exhumed from a mass grave near the church of Bucha. Locals suggest that he was shot because of his last name.

“We entered our house and met Ilya, who was coming down the stairs. I told him: don’t go out, there will be shooting there. But he still wanted to go out for a while to smoke a cigarette. Then I heard shots again and again,” said resident Maria Buchi about the death of Ilya Navalny on March 12. Neighbors found him with a bullet through his head, and his passport lay next to his body.

Closer relatives of Alexei Navalny in the Kiev region were not affected, Pavel Navalny said.

The Russian Defense Ministry has not yet responded to a request for comment.

Navalny said he did not know if the man was related to him, but that he was from the same village as Navalny's father. He again called on the Russians to demonstrate against the war.

Navalny is serving time in a penal colony. He was arrested last year after returning to Russia from Germany, where he was being treated for poisoning with a Soviet-made nerve agent. Navalny blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for the assassination attempt. The Kremlin denies these accusations.

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Last month, a Russian court found Navalny guilty of grand larceny and contempt of court, likely extending his sentence by years. He posts on social media through his lawyers and supporters.

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