Russian police arrest men suspected of attacking veteran of war in Ukraine on New Year’s Eve

The Russian Investigative Committee has charged three men with disorderly conduct in the city of Chelyabinsk after they attacked a group of people that included a veteran of the war in Ukraine, the agency reported on Tuesday.

According to the Investigative Committee, the alleged perpetrators started a fight outside an apartment building on New Year’s Eve. The authorities reported that the men were drunk, that they were behaving provocatively, and that they hit people with a baton. One of the victims “took part in the special military operation,” according to the authorities.

In its initial statements, the Investigative Committee’s press service, citing social media reports, said that a “crowd of drunk migrants” attacked two men who had been “demobilized from the front.” The agency later stopped referring to the suspects as “migrants,” instead calling them “the defendants in the case” or “the young men.”

The Telegram channel 112 wrote that the confrontation began when residents asked the men to quiet down. A video of the incident that appears to have been filmed by the wife of one of the victims soon spread around social media. It’s unclear from the clip what sparked the conflict.

The video shows five men, one of whom is holding a baton, walking up to a group of men and women who are waiting for a taxi. The man with the baton hits one of the men in the other group before insulting them for several minutes. A fight then breaks out, leading two of the alleged attackers to spray pepper spray. The woman filming the video tells the young men that they will face consequences and says her father is a police colonel.

On the evening of January 1, Chelyabinsk police reported that three people “suspected of committing offenses against special military operation participants” had been arrested. Two of them are 18 years old and the other is 17, according to the statement. The Russian Investigative Committee shared a video that shows riot police officers in masks breaking down the door to the suspects’ apartment and ordering them to lie on the floor.