© Michael Metsel/TASS
Over a dozen Ukrainian militants charged with felonies against the Donbass civilians have received long-term sentences by the courts of the DPR and the LPR. "The investigation into crimes by Ukrainian nationalists is underway; all the offenders will be justly punished," Russia’s Investigative Committee notes.
The LPR Supreme Court sentenced a Ukrainian serviceman involved in shelling of a humanitarian corridor to 15 years in a maximum-security jail. The investigation and the court held that while conducting quadcopter reconnaissance in the city of Rubezhnoye on April 10, 2022, captain of Ukraine’s National Guard Vladislav Melnik saw a group of people moving along humanitarian corridors. He handed over their coordinates to AFU gunners and they opened mortar fire on the fleeing civilians. The latter miraculously avoided death and wounds, having managed to take shelter or escape the firing envelope.
Another Ukrainian militant was convicted of using grenades against inhabited apartments. "I took a grenade out of my pocket and threw it into the window of an apartment with a woman inside. I knew she was there, and I knew I would harm her," Andrei Neznamov confessed while interrogated. He said he deliberately threw that grenade into the apartment in LNR’s Severodonetsk, which resulted in the woman’s injuries. Neznamov's actions were qualified by the investigation as the use in a military conflict of means and methods of warfare prohibited by an international treaty to which the Russian Federation is a party, attempted homicide and intentional damage to property of a person. The court sentenced him to 12 years behind bars in a maximum-security prison.
Another defendant, commander of the Berlingo special platoon Maxim Butkevich, fired a grenade launcher at the entrance of a residential building in Severodonetsk, where civilians were hiding. "Having received an order from the command about causing physical and property damage to Severodonetsk residents, I occupied a residential apartment up one flight. When I saw civilians in the window, I decided to kill them and damage the house. To this end, I fired an anti-tank grenade launcher into the entrance of the apartment building. Yes, I did realize that I was shooting at civilians," the militant said. Two people died because of Butkevich, who pleaded guilty and would spend the next 18.5 years in custody.
Recently, two Ukrainian soldiers involved in crimes against civilians were sentenced to 25 years by the DPR. Based on evidence of the Russian Investigative Committee and the republic’s Supreme Court, Andrei Nayden and Danila Kolenov have been found guilty of ill-treating civilians, using prohibited methods in an armed conflict, and killing two people as part of a group. On March 5, 2022, the mentioned militants, while at an operating site in the city of Mariupol, saw two passers-by in front of them, and opened fire to kill them. Poor things died at the scene.
Among other established war criminals is Azov militant Sergey Mikhailenko, who shot a car with a big inscription "Children" in Mariupol. All the four family members inside were killed, including a three-year-old child. The same Mariupol saw Alexey Mozgovoy and his brother Yuri occupy positions in a five-storey apartment block, with 15 civilians hiding in its basement, including a dangerously ill man. The nationalist brothers forbade them to leave the basement and refused to help get medicines. As a result, the man died. Four others were killed when trying to escape.
As part of the criminal case against Andrei Kairsky, a soldier of the 56th separate mechanized brigade, investigators found out that he killed two civilians by head-shots just to show off for his pals. Hearings are also scheduled into the case of Ukrainian Armed Forces serviceman Oleg Tishchenko, who, alongside his commander Zakharchuk, played bullets upon settlements in DPR’s Volnovakha district. "As per the testimony, he realized civilians would die under artillery fire but stayed indifferent to their fate," the Investigative Committee stated.
On the outskirts of Severodonetsk, a mass grave with bodies of local residents was found in the territory of a burned gas station. There used to be a checkpoint of the Ukrainian National Bank there. Apart from transport inspections, the militants were also engaged in searching for pro-Russian people. The gas station building with armored doors and window bars turned into a prison for torture and murder. People’s bodies were dumped into fuel tanks. Investigators exhumated them and found signs of torture, with their hands tied behind their backs.
To date, the Russian Investigative Committee has incriminated abuse of 98 civilians to 48 Ukrainian soldiers, including Azov regiment’s nationalists, National Guardsmen and border patrol agents. Hundreds more criminal cases are on the table.
In addition to charging Ukrainian war criminals for their recent actions, the investigators are also probing into those committed since 2014. In particular, former Defense Minister Mikhail Poltorak was charged with shelling LDPR territories in 2014 to 2019, claiming the lives of over 530 people and injuring another 970.
The number of criminal cases initiated against representatives of the Ukrainian military and political leadership, members of radical groups and armed formations has exceeded 1300. More than 220 representatives of the highest command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine who targeted civilians are known to have been engaged in war crimes without statute of limitations. 92 commanders and their subordinates face indictment.
