The Security Service of Ukraine has collected evidence against an international mercenary involved in the torture and cruel treatment of civilians during the temporary occupation of the Kyiv region in 2022.

The individual in question is international criminal Davor Savicic, commander of the ‘Wolves’ sabotage and reconnaissance unit. This 46-year-old mercenary holds dual citizenship: Bosnia and Herzegovina and russia.

According to available information, Savicic is under investigation by INTERPOL and the law enforcement agencies of Bosnia and Herzegovina for illegally forming and joining foreign paramilitary units, organizing a terrorist group, and participating in armed conflicts during the breakup of Yugoslavia.

He is also included on the sanctions lists of the United Kingdom (UK FCDO Sanctions List) and Ukraine (National Security and Defence Council) as a member of paramilitary structures that threaten Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

The investigation established that in late 2021, the suspect agreed to fight as part of the russian private military company ‘Redut’ and to recruit mercenaries into the combat unit ‘Wolves’.

In February-April 2022, this battalion of mercenaries operated as part of the russian armed forces ‘Vostok’ group and took direct part in the occupation of settlements in the Vyshhorod and Bucha districts of Kyiv oblast.

The perpetrator, along with other members of the russian occupation forces, was based in a forested area between the villages of Shybene and Krasnyi Rih in the Bucha district.

It has been documented that in the village of Fedorivka, Vyshhorod District, Savicic gave the order to detain a local civilian who was hiding from shelling in a shelter.

Accompanied by 20 russian armed servicemen, the mercenary forced the 39-year-old man to come out of the shelter and ordered him to undress. With his hands tied behind his back, the russian soldiers took the captive into the forest to their base.

There, Savicic tortured the civilian – beating him with the butt of an assault rifle during interrogations, trying to force him to give false testimony for russian propaganda media – while his subordinates tied the victim to a tree for several hours along with an unpinned grenade.

Unable to force the man to cooperate, the mercenary ordered him to dig a hole. There, he kept the victim with his hands tied for seven days without food or water, while his subordinates continued the beatings and abuse.

Savicic also participated in the torture of the wife of an Anti-Terrorist Operation participant, whom the occupiers had illegally abducted from an apartment in Ivankiv, Vyshhorod District. For three days, the ruscists illegally held the captive in a van without heating, light, food, a place to sleep, or facilities for relieving herself.

On Savicic’s orders, russian military personnel brought the woman to a field tent for interrogation. The suspect threatened her with physical violence if she refused to cooperate, demanded she reveal the locations of Ukrainian Armed Forces personnel, and forced her to give interviews to russian propagandists.

After the de-occupation of the Kyiv region, SSU investigators found her husband’s tortured body in one of the pits in the forest where the occupiers had been based. The individuals involved in his murder are currently being identified by the investigation.

Based on the evidence, including witness testimony and materials from open sources, SSU investigators have issued a notice of suspicion in absentia under Articles 28.2, 438.1 of the CCU (war crimes, committed by a group, by prior conspiracy).

The investigation also established that from November 2022 to January 2023, following the results of replenishment and reorganisation, the ‘Wolves’ sabotage and reconnaissance detachment was reformed into the 1st volunteer reconnaissance assault brigade, which became part of the ‘volunteer corps’ of the main directorate of the general staff of the russian armed forces (‘the GRU’). It is there that colonel Davor Savicic is serving now, being engaged in recruiting foreign fighters under the GRU’s supervision.

As the mercenary is evading prosecution in russia, efforts to bring him to justice are ongoing. Additionally, Interpol has entered Savicic into its databases and issued an international arrest warrant for him.

The investigation was conducted by the SSU Office in Kyiv and the Kyiv region, in cooperation with the National Police, under the procedural supervision of the Kyiv Region Prosecutor’s Office.