Reporting from Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine
BBCOn the frozen frontline within the east of Zaporizhzhia, a Ukrainian soldier surveyed the fallout from a Russian assault. It was the center of January 2024 and the bottom was lined in ice. Two weeks earlier, an 18-strong Russian assault workforce had damaged by means of the road and seized three positions, killing 5 Ukrainians and shedding 10 Russians earlier than ceding the skinny stretch of land again to the Ukrainians simply hours later. The three positions that had modified fingers had been every just some foxholes within the floor – dots on a devastated panorama of craters and shredded bushes.
The Ukrainian soldier filmed as he appeared over the stays of his fallen comrades. “That is Vitas, the small one,” he mentioned, utilizing the useless man’s callsign. He examined one other physique. “A silver ring, that is Grinch,” he mentioned. With issue, he turned over one other frozen physique. It was in unhealthy situation, however the face was recognisable. The soldier sighed. “What can I discover to cowl you, so that you simply will not get chilly,” he mentioned to the useless man. He picked up a close-by helmet and positioned it over the broken face. “Now we have discovered the Penguin,” he mentioned.
A yr later, in January 2025, a Russian soldier was frog-marched down the hall of a rundown native courthouse in Zaporizhzhia flanked by 5 Ukrainian troopers and a big rottweiler educated on the Russian’s scent and straining at its leash to assault him. Dmitriy Kurashov, callsign ‘Stalker’, was about to go on trial for the alleged battlefield execution of Vitalii Hodniuk, a veteran 41-year-old Ukrainian soldier recognized by the callsign ‘Penguin’.
HandoutThe trial was to be the primary of its variety. In accordance with Ukrainian authorities, Russian troops have executed at the very least 124 prisoners of struggle on the battlefield because the full-scale invasion started, however Kurashov is the primary particular person to be dropped at trial in Ukraine for the crime. His case is one among a tiny quantity among the many tens of 1000’s of open struggle crimes instances the place a suspect has been captured and may be made to face within the dock. Including to the unprecedented nature of the occasion, three members of Kurashov’s personal unit had agreed to testify in opposition to him.
Within the shiny, boxy courtroom, Kurashov was locked in a glass-enclosed dock. Brief in stature, his head typically bowed, he lower a subdued determine. When he did go searching, he was pressured to swivel his head as a result of he had misplaced one eye to a grenade on the entrance. It was not Kurashov’s first time within the dock; he had been jailed twice earlier than in Russia, and was among the many 1000’s of prisoners freed by the state to participate within the struggle.
The prosecutor learn the costs. Kurashov was accused of taking pictures Hodniuk execution type because the Ukrainian soldier tried to give up – a violation of the legal guidelines of struggle. Kurashov had intially pleaded not responsible, in the course of the pre-trial section, however now in court docket he switched his plea to responsible. Informally, he maintained his innocence, and was making the swap purely to hurry up the method, he mentioned.
In accordance with the UN, battlefield executions by Russians have elevated at an alarming charge over the previous yr. In a February report, the UN human rights mission in Ukraine mentioned it had discovered proof of 79 executions by Russian forces since August 2024, in addition to proof of three unlawful killings by Ukraine utilizing first-person drones. The UN additionally mentioned it had discovered at the very least three calls by Russian public officers ordering or approving executions, and in line with Ukraine there may be proof of Russian battlefield commanders ordering executions up and down the frontline.
The assault on the entrance by Kurashov’s unit was to be his first correct operation, just some weeks after becoming a member of the struggle. The unit was a part of “Storm-V”, a detachment of the 127th motorised rifle division made up virtually totally of freed prisoners. The Storm-V models have been utilized by Russia as cannon fodder, despatched to stage assaults on the worst components of the frontline. They’re a grim echo of comparable models fashioned by Stalin, characterised principally by their extraordinarily excessive charge of attrition.
The operation started early on the morning of 6 January 2024 below a dense fog. The 18-strong Storm-V workforce approached the frontline in two armoured automobiles and a tank and the assault started. Kurashov was directed in direction of the small cluster of foxholes the place Hodniuk and others had been hiding, following a Russian artillery barrage.
That is the place Kurashov’s account diverges from that of the prosecution and the Russian troopers testifying in opposition to him. They are saying Kurashov referred to as right into a foxhole for these inside to give up and Hodniuk emerged unarmed and kneeled on the bottom, just for Kurashov to shoot him with a burst from his AK-47. Kurashov says that it was not him who fired the photographs however one other Russian, a medic with callsign “Sedoy”, who was later killed.
The Russians couldn’t maintain the place for lengthy. Overpowered by Ukrainian forces simply hours later, Kurashov and the opposite survivors crawled out of the foxholes and surrendered. They had been marched away from the entrance to a Ukrainian armoured car and brought as prisoners of struggle. Ukrainian troopers who noticed Hodniuk’s physique advised the nation’s state safety service, the SBU, that it lay face down with no weapon close by.
The SBU couldn’t entry the scene, as a result of it was too near the contact line, however the company started what would grow to be an intensive distant investigation. At an SBU location in Zaporizhzhia final month, the officer in cost – who spoke on situation of anonymity due to his work within the safety service – drew a map of the scene and defined how they put Kurashov within the dock.
“Step one was interrogating the eight prisoners of struggle,” he mentioned. “They had been questioned as witnesses and later their identities had been absolutely confirmed by way of social networks, cellphones, and partial radio intercepts that preceded the occasion. Your entire unit in that sector was tracked.”
Initially, there have been two suspected executions. One other Ukrainian, callsign ‘Grinch’, had been overwhelmed to demise with a shovel, one witness mentioned. However the SBU could not show it. “The polygraph did not verify the knowledge and when the our bodies had been finally recovered from the battlefield, none of them had such accidents,” the investigator mentioned. “My opinion, after analyzing all of the information, is that this was made up.”
It was, he mentioned, an instance of Ukraine’s means to analyze and prosecute struggle crimes impartially, regardless of being the sufferer and below an ongoing state of struggle from the aggressor. “Look, we now have one suspect on trial for an execution,” the SBU investigator mentioned, referring to Kurashov. “I signed it and despatched it to court docket as a result of we have gathered sufficient proof that factors to guilt. If our purpose was merely to suspect anybody and ship them to court docket we might have ten prisoners passing by means of every single day.”
The seriousness with which Ukraine is treating this prison prosecution is obvious. The SBU investigation produced greater than 2,000 pages of proof. Every of the witnesses was put by means of filmed reconstructions of the occasion on a Ukrainian military taking pictures vary. In court docket, all efforts have been made by the prosecutor and the judges to make sure that Kurashov understands his rights, that he can perceive his interpreter, and is given the chance to cross look at witnesses in opposition to him – a possibility he has to date declined. (Kurashov’s state-appointed lawyer declined to talk to the BBC. She has spoken solely briefly in court docket, on administrative issues and to make clear some descriptions of the occasion by witnesses.)
The three Russian witnesses all testified on the primary day of Kurashov’s trial – three former prisoners who like Kurashov had gambled on surviving the struggle to realize their freedom. One had been serving 25 years to life for killing two drug sellers, one other 9 years for grievous bodily hurt for killing a person with a brick in a struggle, a 3rd eight years, additionally for grievous bodily hurt.
They gave proof by way of video hyperlink from an adjoining courtroom, in order that they might be locked in their very own dock. Dmitry Zuev, 44, was to be the important thing witness. He advised the court docket that he noticed Kurashov name for the Ukrainians to return out of the foxhole and give up, after which Hodniuk emerged and knelt along with his fingers up. Then there have been extra gunshots and explosions, Zuev mentioned, and he noticed Hodniuk fall face down into the mud. Zuev additionally advised the court docket that he personally knew the medic, Sedoy, who Kurashov has accused of the killing, and Sedoy was not there.
Oleg Zamyatin, 54, testified that Hodniuk was not holding a gun when he emerged from the foxhole. Zamyatin didn’t see Kurashov hearth the alleged photographs, he mentioned, as a result of there have been explosions on the similar second.
“However I can say that it was him,” Zamyatin advised the court docket. “As a result of there was nobody else at that spot besides him.”
Konstantin Zelenin, 41, the commander of Kurashov’s small assault group, advised the court docket he was hiding in a crater when he noticed Hodniuk exit the foxhole on the best facet along with his fingers up.
“Then, only a break up second later, because the shelling started once more, I heard a burst from an automated rifle,” Zelenin mentioned.
“On the best facet was Stalker, and he was there alone.”
Within the dock, Kurashov sat largely mute as his former unit mates testified in opposition to him, talking solely sometimes to his lawyer by means of a slim hole within the enclosure’s door. It isn’t clear but if he’ll testify on his personal behalf. The day after one among his hearings, he agreed to speak to the BBC about how he had ended up on trial in Ukraine.
The interview was co-ordinated by the SBU and performed at a derelict constructing in Zaporizhzhia getting used as a sort of secure home by the service, which confirmed the fundamental information of Kurashov’s life. Kurashov appeared in good situation and mentioned he had agreed freely to participate. The lead choose in his case permitted the interview, for which an SBU press officer was current a few of the time. Kurashov’s remarks to the BBC won’t be admissible in court docket.
His journey to that depressing stretch of entrance the place Hodniuk died – to turning into Stalker – started in an orphanage in Gremyachinsk, a decayed outdated coal city a few thousand miles from Moscow on the best way to Siberia. Orphaned at beginning, Kurashov was raised in a gaggle residence. As an adolescent, he received right into a struggle with a police officer and was imprisoned for assault. He served 4 years, however on his launch he had no household, associates or place to reside, so he grew to become a vagrant. He started robbing summer time homes and retailers for meals and cash, he mentioned, leading to one other imprisonment, this time in a distant penal colony alongside males serving life sentences for the a few of the most brutal crimes.
Six months into that sentence, representatives from the Russian army got here to the penal colony and advised the convicts they’d a possibility to show a brand new web page of their lives. Kurashov nonetheless had 5 years to serve. “They advised us you possibly can have a clear slate, grow to be a clear particular person,” he mentioned. “Simply signal this contract and go.”
“Go” meant to the “particular army operation” in Ukraine. Kurashov knew little about it, he mentioned, however he thought something was higher than 5 extra years within the penal colony or being turned out into the streets on the finish of his sentence. So he signed, and was taken instantly to a coaching camp in occupied territory in Ukraine.
Kurashov described his unit as made up totally of “individuals who had been pushed down by life and rejected by society, who had been exterior of society”. They got 21 days’ coaching, he mentioned, throughout which they had been drunk virtually on a regular basis. “They didn’t wish to examine or prepare,” he recalled. “All of them mentioned they had been simply there to die.”
There was no coaching on the Geneva Conference, to which Russia and Ukraine are each signatories, and which prohibits the killing of people that have surrendered or not pose a risk. The truth is, the trainers advised them the alternative, Kurashov mentioned. “Those who taught us learn how to take positions advised us to not take any prisoners,” he mentioned. His description matches accounts from his unit mates, who advised Ukrainian investigators they had been instructed to execute prisoners and throw grenades into dugouts even when the enemy had surrendered.
It additionally matches accounts from different Russian prisoners of struggle. “I do not recall coaching on worldwide humanitarian legislation,” a Russian POW advised the UN not too long ago. “Throughout our army coaching and later, commanders advised us to not take [Ukrainian soldiers] as prisoners of struggle. It’s logistically cumbersome.”
In accordance with Kurashov, the unit had been advised they might be finishing up logistical operations like digging trenches, however as an alternative discovered themselves headed instantly for battle. Throughout the transient assault on the Ukrainian place, Kurashov’s impression was not one among an ready army unit at struggle. “What I noticed was individuals who simply laid down and died,” he mentioned. Inside hours, 10 of the 18-strong assault workforce had been useless and the remaining eight had been in captivity.
Inside a fortnight, the incident had grow to be one among Ukraine’s many 1000’s of struggle crimes instances. Ukraine has no specialist struggle crimes courts, so the instances typically fall to whichever court docket is native to the offence. On this case, the Zavodskyi District in Zaporizhzhia.
Previous to the complete scale invasion, 32-year-old prosecutor Mykyta Manevskyi had taken on a spread of civil crimes like theft, vandalism and fraud, plus two homicide instances, however by no means a struggle crime. “While you’re working with an peculiar homicide case, it has difficulties but it surely’s fairly easy,” Manevskyi mentioned. ” the place the homicide happened, you possibly can acquire DNA and fingerprints, you could find the homicide weapon. You have got virtually quick entry to the physique. You possibly can conduct forensic assessments.”
On this case, Manevskyi’s homicide scene was on the contact line. “We couldn’t even extract the physique for 2 months,” he mentioned. “It made it troublesome to carry out any sort of forensic examination. The physique was too lengthy below the solar, the rain and snow, and it was harmed by artillery strikes.”
That made it troublesome to determine something concrete concerning the nature of the photographs that killed Hodniuk. “This isn’t the extent of element, sadly, that we’d like when investigating a homicide,” Manevskyi mentioned. “So we needed to focus extra on working with the witnesses we had.”
The truth is, the prosecution is relying virtually completely on the testimony of the Russian troopers. There aren’t any different eyewitnesses, no drone footage of the particular occasion and the bodily proof is circumstantial, a lot of it badly degraded by the battlefield situations which endured for weeks earlier than the our bodies might be recovered.
However the testimony is just not with out its issues. The witnesses are all POWs, being held by the nation prosecuting the case. They had been every interrogated as much as 10 occasions by the Ukrainian state safety service, throughout which period a few of their tales advanced. One bore a grudge in opposition to Kurashov from their time collectively in coaching, he advised investigators. One other mentioned he resented the defendant for, in his view, getting them caught.
“It’s a tough space,” mentioned Sergey Vasiliev, a professor of worldwide legislation on the Open College of the Netherlands. “POWs are a very weak class of witnesses, any proof they provide ought to be taken with a grain of salt.” There was nothing inherently unsuitable with POWs testifying, Vasiliev mentioned, however varied elements might have affected their resolution to seem for the prosecution. “Possibly they’re anticipating higher therapy in Ukrainian custody, perhaps they anticipate to be prioritised in a prisoner swap,” he mentioned. “They may have varied incentives to lie.”
Kurashov maintains his story concerning the medic, Sedoy. He advised the BBC he had pleaded responsible as a result of he believed the earlier the trial was over the earlier he might be exchanged again to Russia.
But when Kurashov is discovered responsible, he’s not a prisoner of struggle. He’s merely a prisoner in Ukraine’s civil authorized system. Yuriy Belousov, the top of the struggle crimes division of Ukraine’s Workplace of the Prosecutor Common, advised the BBC that Russian troopers convicted of struggle crimes would go to jail in Ukraine and keep there. “We prosecute on behalf of the victims and their kinfolk and they need to really feel justice has been accomplished,” Belousov mentioned.
Ultimately, it might not be that straightforward. Russia has captured many 1000’s of civilians throughout its full scale invasion of Ukraine and is successfully holding them hostage in Russian prisons. If the Kremlin decides it desires Kurashov again, it could have leverage to get him.
“That’s much less of a authorized and extra of an moral subject,” Belousov mentioned. “If, for instance, 100 individuals can be provided to change for this one, then sure perhaps. It’s our obligation to prosecute on behalf of victims, however it is usually our obligation to save lots of our individuals who have been saved in Russia.”
Belousov and his colleagues are aiming at larger fish than Kurashov. Their purpose for this yr and subsequent is to deliver instances in opposition to center and better stage Russian command, he mentioned. In accordance with the testimony from the captured Russians in Kurashov’s unit, their senior commander issued an order immediately earlier than the assault that no prisoners ought to be taken.
In accordance with Belousov, comparable proof has been discovered up and down the frontline. Grim video proof, generally shared on Russian social media, seems to bear that out. Russia has in flip accused Ukrainian troops of extra-judicial killings, and Ukraine has launched a number of investigations into its personal forces (the precise quantity is unclear). However the variety of allegations in opposition to Russia far outweighs that in opposition to Ukraine. Russia has beforehand denied committing struggle crimes within the battle.
The UN has additionally documented a number of instances of Russian public figures calling for executions. Final July, after Ukraine’s Azov Brigade posted a social media video displaying one among its members taking pictures a Russian soldier in a dugout, the deputy head of Russia’s Safety Council, Dmitry Medvedev, referred to as for “complete executions” of Ukrainian servicemen.
“No phrases about mercy. No humanity. No pardon. They don’t have any proper to life. Execute, execute and execute,” Medvedev wrote on the Telegram social media platform.
Medvedev’s phrases won’t price him something. As a substitute they run downhill till they attain the extent of Vitalii Hodniuk, Dmitry Kurashov, and all the opposite Russian and Ukrainian males killing one another in service of the struggle’s obscure targets. On this case, a kind of males stands accused of breaking the legal guidelines of the killing he had been despatched to do – legal guidelines he could effectively have been ordered to ignore.
If discovered responsible, Kurashov faces as much as life in jail. On the finish of his dialog with the BBC, he mentioned that he had no actual imaginative and prescient for the long run, aside from a need to return to Russia. “No less than I’ll have a incapacity,” he mentioned, referring to the lack of his eye, and the anticipated advantages it might draw. “I will not need to be a vagrant anymore.”
Vitalii Hodniuk can’t return residence, in fact. It was two months earlier than his physique might even be recovered. His household didn’t wish to communicate publicly about his passing, however they did help within the SBU in its investigation. Hodniuk’s file exhibits that he was an skilled soldier who defended Ukraine in opposition to Russian-backed forces from 2015 to 2020 and joined as much as struggle once more in 2022.
Final Could, six months after he died, the Penguin was introduced again to his village to be buried. On a shiny morning, only a stone’s throw from the place he grew up and went to high school, individuals lined the road on their knees to look at his coffin cross by.
Kurashov’s trial continues.
Daria Mitiuk contributed to this report. Images by Joel Gunter.
