Russian soldier to be tried for torturing civilians in Mykolaiv region

Law enforcement officers have sent to court an indictment against a serviceman of the 2nd Air Assault Battalion of the Russian Armed Forces, who is accused of cruelty to civilians during the occupation of Mykolaiv region.

This was reported by the Mykolaiv Regional Prosecutor's Office.

According to the investigation, in the period from April to November 2022, the accused, together with other Russian military personnel, illegally deprived four residents of one of the settlements of the Shyrokivska community of the Bashtanka district.

The occupiers detained civilians, subjected them to beatings and death threats in an attempt to obtain information about the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Ukrainian military.

The prosecutor's office emphasizes that such actions are a violation of the laws and customs of war and qualify as war crimes.

Mykolaiv police have also completed a pre-trial investigation against two Russian military officers who ill-treated residents of one of the temporarily occupied villages in Bashtanka district and seized their property. Investigators found that in April 2022, two Russian servicemen - a commander and a tank driver of the 205th separate motorized rifle Cossack brigade - intentionally, by prior conspiracy, used violence against a local resident. The man was beaten in the torso with a rifle butt, cigarette butts were put out on his hand, and for six months he was forced to load and unload grain with his bare hands, without any tools. In August of the same year, one of the occupiers broke a man's ribs in the presence of another because he had witnessed the torture.

Earlier, two more Russian soldiers were sentenced to prison terms for crimes against civilians in Mykolaiv region. The crimes of the defendants were not limited to torture - during one of the episodes, the military killed a civilian.

Олеся Ланцман