Man Faces 7 Years for Desecrating Soldier's Grave in Odesa Region

Police investigators have sent to court a case about the desecration of the grave of a serviceman and the national symbols of Ukraine that took place in Odesa region in February.

This was reported by the press service of the Main Directorate of the National Police of Ukraine in Odesa Oblast.

During the pre-trial investigation, investigators found that the attacker, while intoxicated, went to the cemetery in the afternoon, where he damaged the tombstone over the joint burial of a civilian couple by jumping on it, and then, using a knife he had with him, tore the national flag of Ukraine from the flagpole installed on the soldier's grave.

As the police found out, the offender did not have any hostile relations with the deceased during their lifetime or with their families. He did it for fun.

Investigators detained the man and the court imposed on him a measure of restraint in the form of round-the-clock house arrest. The man is accused of desecrating graves committed with hooligan motives, in particular those of a person who defended the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine and participated in measures to ensure national security and defense, repulsing and deterring the armed aggression of the Russian Federation.

If found guilty, the man faces up to seven years in prison.

Also in February, police began investigating the circumstances of the desecration of the graves of fallen Ukrainian defenders in Odesa region in one of the villages of the Kurisovska united community in Bereziv district.

Meanwhile, in early March, the Prymorskyi District Court of Odesa convicted a native of the Krasnodar Territory of the Russian Federation of two crimes, one of which was desecration of the state symbols of Ukraine.

According to the court' s verdict, the man tore down 51 Ukrainian flags on European Square and set them on fire.

Кирило Бойко