Russian soldiers stuffed a Ukrainian man’s body in his car trunk with a weight-sensitive mine that detonated when Ukrainian soldiers moved it, Politico reports

• Russian soldiers booby-trapped a Ukrainian man’s dead body in his own car trunk, according to Politico.
• His wife discovered his body and later brought Ukrainian troops to help move him, fearing a trap.
• When they tried to pull him from the trunk with a rope, the car “exploded in a ball of flames.”

Russian soldiers killed a Ukrainian army volunteer on the outskirts of Kyiv and left his dead body in his car trunk fitted with a mine that later exploded when Ukrainian forces attempted to move him, according to Politico.

Lyudmyla Kyrpach, the soldier’s widow, told Politico that she and her husband Oleksandr “did everything together.”

Kyrpach told the outlet that the day after the invasion began in late February, Oleksandr, a mechanic, organized volunteer fighters in his village of Kalynivka, near Kyiv.

By March 1, days after Russian troops had encroached on their village, Oleksandr’s friends set out driving to see if they could source more intel about Russian troop movements up close. She told Politico’s Christopher Miller that after they failed to return, he set out to find them.

“He said he would be right back,” Lyudmyla told Politico. Oleksandr never returned, and unable to sleep, Lyudmyla set out the following day with her friends to find him. 

She noticed his sedan on the road, with the keys in the ignition but no passengers in the car, she told Politico.

Lyudmyla’s friend noticed that the trunk was riddled with bullets, per the report, and they opened the trunk to find Oleksandr’s dead body. Her friend pulled her away from the car in fear that the trunk could be booby-trapped, she explained to the outlet.

By March 4 they returned to the scene with Ukrainian soldiers.

According to the report, the soldiers tied ropes to his limbs and moved far from the car to pull slowly and see if the car was rigged. As soon as they pulled, the “car exploded in a ball of flames.” Russian soldiers had placed weight-triggered mine under Oleksandr, Lyudmyla told Politico.

“Lyudmyla picked up the pieces of the man she had spent decades with and placed them in a box,” Politico reported. Later, she buried him in the garden where they used to plant vegetables together.

In April, the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs had stated that Russia’s attacks on civilians extended beyond artillery attacks, with officials saying they uncovered booby traps scattered throughout cities including Kyiv and Mariupol. 

“The Russian Federation is in war not only with the Ukrainian Armed Forces but also fights against the civilian population of Ukraine, grossly violating the Law of war,” the statement said.“While retreating Russia’s military personnel is massively setting up booby-traps, banned by the international law, even on food facilities, private housing, and human corpses.”

Last month, Ukrainian authorities unearthed a mass grave in Bucha, near Kyiv, claiming that Russian soldiers killed and buried at least 360 Ukrainians in a 45-foot-long trench. Journalists who visited Bucha after Russian troops pulled out also reported bodies of civilians in their homes, on the street, and in the suburb’s glass factory.