Exclusive: The Russian military commandant who oversaw reign of fear in Ukraine town

Ruslan Volobuyev, a local businessman, said a Russian intelligence operative beat him during an interview at a police station in Balakliia, Ukraine, in June. Volobuyev said a thick-set 40-year-old with a cleft chin entered the room. Shaking their hands, he went.

Russia’s six-month occupation of eastern Ukraine was led by Balakliia’s military commandant. Russian military unjustly arrested at least 200 individuals in the town, local police alleged, and tortured four residents, according to Reuters. Nelya Kholod, a volunteer identifying missing Balakliia captives, says dozens are still missing.

In an October Reuters investigation into Moscow’s retreat from the village, inhabitants only recognized the commandant by his call sign, “Granit,” the Russian term for granite. According to rosters for occupying section commander meetings accessed by Reuters, the military commandant, part of the Russian defence ministry’s military police, was the town’s most senior military officer responsible for regulating the local populace.

Reuters is the first to identify him as 46-year-old military police Lieutenant Colonel Valery Sergeyevich Buslov. The Security Service of Ukraine and two of Buslov’s Russian servicemen colleagues, including one from the Russian military headquarters in control of Balakliia, confirmed Granit’s genuine name. Volobuyev and two female town residents who saw the commandant said he looked like Buslov in Reuters photos.