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"SLOVIANSK, Ukraine \u2013 At first glance, the carefully worded, soot-stained document adorned with an official stamp looks like a weathered decree from World War II.\nBut dust it off and take a closer look and it becomes clear that it\u2019s an execution order. It was signed off by the enigmatic commander-in-chief Igor Strelkov on June 17 and delivered by a military tribunal of the self-styled rebel government of the Donetsk People\u2019s Republic (DNR), the breakaway territory that voted to secede from Ukraine in a sham referendum in May. \nSee also: What Was Left Behind: Ukraine's Cities After Rebel Retreat\nBuried beneath ash and debris inside the city of Sloviansk\u2019s security services building, or SBU, the command center of the separatist uprising that has engulfed the country since April, it convicts Alexei Borisovich Pichko, 31, of \u201Clooting to an exceptional measure of punishment \u2013 execution by firing squad \u2013 on the basis of the Decree of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR \u2018on martial law\u2019 from June 22nd, 1941.\u201D\n\nAn order signed by rebel commander Igor Strelkov sentences Alexei Borisovich Pichko to death by firing squad for the crime of looting.\nPage 2 of the execution order.\nPage 3 of the execution order.The document was recovered by Mashable on July 7, two days after thousands of separatist militiamen fled Sloviansk following weeks of shelling by Ukrainian government forces and consolidated their forces in the regional center of Donetsk.\nIt was found along with another order to execute two members of the rebel militia \u2013 Dmitry Georgyovich \u201CBolgar\u201D Slavov and Nikolai Alexandrovich \u201CLuka\u201D Lukyanov \u2013 convicted by the military tribunal for kidnapping a local man, looting his home and jailing him in the basement of the SBU without permission from Strelkov.\nA rebel fighter who asked that he remain anonymous because he was not allowed to speak to journalists confirmed their execution, saying that he had been stationed in Sloviansk at the time. Local media first reported news of the men\u2019s deaths last month, but had not confirmed their execution. Strelkov acted as chairman of their tribunal, according to documents. He signed the order \u201CStrelkov,\u201D but also printed the name \u201CGirkin Igor Vsevolodovich\u201D beneath.\nIn a third case, another militiaman \u2013 Alexander Valeryevich Pyrozhenko \u2013 narrowly escaped a firing squad when he was acquitted of treason following an incident in which he shined a flashlight at night during a firefight with Ukrainian government forces, a move his comrades deemed to be \u201Ctreason\u201D for giving away their position. Pyrozhenko confirmed his case by phone.\nSloviansk, typically a peaceful resort city of some 120,000 residents, was the epicenter of Ukraine\u2019s battle with separatists and a notoriously dark place during the rebel occupation. After heavy shelling by both the Ukrainian and rebel forces over the course of the past two months, much of the city has been reduced to rubble. Its SBU building was a dungeon in which rebels held dozens of journalists, activists and locals in captivity, and in grotesque conditions.\nOn Monday, rancid food sat on a makeshift table in the building\u2019s musty basement. A bar of soap used for washing sat on a windowsill nearby. Stuck to a wall was a plastic bottle used to gather drinking water from a leak in the ceiling. On the floor were three damp mattresses covered in stains. Dozens of flies buzzed around the room, which was illuminated only slightly from a small window adorned with bars.\nVice News\u2019 Simon Ostrovskiy was held in the basement for three days after being captured by rebels, as were other journalists. But there are few who spent as much time in the building\u2019s dank cellar as Irma Krat, a Kiev-based Ukrainian journalists who was detained by the rebels in April for \u201Cspying\u201D and only freed after they fled the city last Saturday. Mashable found her passport and press card amid the scorched remains on the building\u2019s first floor. She has since escaped and is now safe in Kiev.\n\nThe soot-stained passport and press ID of Irma Krat found by Mashable inside the Sloviansk SBU building where she was held for more than two months before escaping on July 5.Signed by Strelkov, a war re-enactment enthusiast with a pencil-mustache and Moscow residency also known as Igor Girkin, who Ukraine and the West believe to be an active officer of the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate, or GRU, the death sentence of Pichko is an example of the severity and anachronism in which the self-styled republic is governed as well as the darkness that enshrouded the resort city of Sloviansk during the three months of rebel occupation.\nPichko, 31, was tried and convicted on June 17 for stealing two shirts and a pair of pants from his neighbors\u2019 home on the outskirts of Sloviansk on June 14. After the family had fled the city, he hopped a gate and broke in through a window on the backside of the house. Another neighbor led Mashable through his backyard to examine the window. Pointing to a space covered by a sheet of plywood, the man said, \u201Che broke in there.\u201D\nSeven witnesses, including Pichko\u2019s best friends, testified in the case. The tribunal presiding over the matter included six men subordinate to Strelkov: chairman Viktor Yuriyevich, known as \u201CNose\u201D; members Vyacheslav \u201CBaloo\u201D Anatolevich and Mikhail \u201CGrey\u201D Aleksandrovich; prosecutor Yuri Vladimirovich, also known as \u201CLawyer\u201D; defense counsel Aleksandr \u201CBison\u201D Viktorovich; and secretary Sergei \u201CTryphon\u201D Ivanovich.\nPichko, a convicted criminal released in March after serving more than four years in prison for armed robbery, was apprehended by militiamen out front of a neighbor\u2019s home on June 15 and tossed in the SBU cellar, according to neighbors. They said four militiamen in fatigues \u2013 two with Kalashnikov rifles \u2013 seized Pichko around 4 p.m. that day. \u201CThey came and took him\u2026 and we saw nothing else,\u201D one woman said.\n\nMaria Vasylovna Pichko, 61, the mother of Alexei Borisovich Pichko, who was sentenced to death by firing squad by rebel commander Igor Strelkov, stands in front of her home in Sloviansk on Thursday after hearing the news of the execution order.Maria Vasylovna Pichko, 61, Alexei\u2019s mother, told Mashable on Thursday that she had not seen her son since he was taken nearly a month ago. She said her husband, Boris Fyodorovich Pichko had gone to the SBU building to inquire about Alexei \u201Cthree days after\u201D he was taken. By that time, however, according to the document, he had already been sentenced to death.\nMaria Vasylovna was not aware of the death sentence or his apparent execution until speaking with Mashable on Thursday. Upon hearing the news, she broke down in tears in front of her home.\n\u201CFor two shirts\u2026 they shot him?\u201D she said as she fought by tears. She said that her son\u2019s friend, Valentin, had told her \u201Ceverything would be fine.\u201D\nIt wasn\u2019t. According to a neighbor who asked that her name not be used in this story, Alexei Pichko\u2019s friend told her that his body \u201Chad been dumped on the front lines\u201D of the fighting after he was executed. Mashable could not verify his story.\nRounding out the document, Strelkov writes that the sentence has been carried out.\n\u201CI warn all fighters and commanders of the DNR militia, and also residents of Sloviansk and the Sloviansk area, that any grievous crime committed in the zone of military activity will continue to be punished ruthlessly and decisively,\u201D Strelkov says.\n\u201CThe command of the DNR militia will not allow unchecked criminality on the territory of Sloviansk or the Sloviansk region. Punishments for crimes will be unavoidable, regardless of the status and service of the criminal.\u201D\n\nPichko's hand-written confession.Image:  Christopher Miller,  Mashable\n\nWhat the Pro-Russian Fighters Left Behind in Ukraine\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSeparatists' tank turret on the road from Sloviansk to Kramatorsk.\n\nImage:  Evgeny Feldman, Mashable\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCrossroad near Sloviansk, with buildings damaged during fights.\n\nImage:  Evgeny Feldman, Mashable\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nDestroyed condo in Nikolaevka. \n\nImage:  Evgeny Feldman, Mashable\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAn elderly woman passes by a destroyed condo in Sloviansk.\n\nImage:  Evgeny Feldman, Mashable\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nA woman cleans a room in her apartment, which was badly damaged during fighting in Kramatorsk.\n\nImage:  Evgeny Feldman, Mashable\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMother and child pass a burning car that was once part of a barricade in Kramatorsk.\n\nImage:  Evgeny Feldman, Mashable\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nA man in Kramatorsk rebuilds a wall to a food shop that was destroyed during the fighting between pro-Russian insurgents and Ukrainian government forces.\n\nImage:  Evgeny Feldman, Mashable\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLocals collect water at one of a few spots organized in Kramatorsk.\n\nImage:  Evgeny Feldman, Mashable\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWoman passes through a now-abandoned barricade in Kramatorsk city center.\n\nImage:  Evgeny Feldman, Mashable\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLocals find a charge for their cellphones in Sloviansk's main square.\n\nImage:  Evgeny Feldman, Mashable\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nA Sloviansk local rides his bike through an abandoned barricade. \n\nImage:  Evgeny Feldman, Mashable\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLocals in Sloviansk gather in the town's main square to receive humanitarian aide supplies, including food. \n\nImage:  Evgeny Feldman, Mashable\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nUkrainian soldiers patrol the city of Sloviansk after pro-Russian insurgents fled.\n\nImage:  Evgeny Feldman, Mashable\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAmid the destruction in Sloviansk, many pets were abandoned and left to starve. \n\nImage:  Evgeny Feldman, Mashable\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nA Ukrainian policeman enters the Sloviansk police station that was seized by separatists who wrote \"Russians do not surrender\" on the gates.\n\nImage:  Evgeny Feldman, Mashable\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nA basement in Sloviansk where a group of pro-Russian separatists held captives, including VICE reporter Simon Ostrovsky.\n\nImage:  Evgeny Feldman, Mashable\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nA Ukrainian volunteer fighting with Kiev-1 battalion looks at what is left of one of the condos in Sloviansk. \n\nImage:  Evgeny Feldman, Mashable\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAs separatists made their getaway from Sloviansk, their car and APC were destroyed. Their charred remains are ghostly reminders of a chaotic past few months.  \n\nImage:  Evgeny Feldman, Mashable\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nUkrainian soldiers enter Sloviansk.\n\nImage:  Evgeny Feldman, Mashable\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLocals play dominoes in front of a damaged building in Nikolaevka.\n\nImage:  Evgeny Feldman, Mashable\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLocals ride a motorcycle in the destroyed village of Semyonovka.\n\nImage:  Evgeny Feldman, Mashable\n\n\n\n\n\n\nHave something to add to this story? Share it in the comments."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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