A Ukrainian courtroom has handed down the primary jail sentence for all times in opposition to a Russian soldier accused of killing a Ukrainian prisoner of warfare.
Dmitry Kurashov, 27, was discovered responsible of taking pictures lifeless Vitalii Hodniuk, a veteran 41-year-old Ukrainian soldier who had surrendered following seize in 2024.
Ukraine’s nationwide police mentioned that “skilled studies, witness testimony and video footage from the scene confirmed that the Russian soldier intentionally killed the POW on the orders of his commanders, who had instructed troops to not take Ukrainian troopers captive”.
In a months-long trial which started earlier this yr, the courtroom heard how Kurashov’s unit stormed a Ukrainian place within the area of Zaporizhzhia on the morning of 6 January 2024.
The prosecution mentioned that though Hodniuk crawled out of a dugout unarmed and surrendered, Kurashov shot him point-blank with a number of aimed AK-47 photographs – a violation of the legal guidelines of warfare.
Kurashov and the remainder of his unit have been later overpowered by Ukrainian forces and brought as prisoners of warfare.
Kurashov initially pleaded responsible however later retracted, saying he had solely performed so to expedite the trial within the hope that he could be launched in a prisoner swap. He maintained it was a Russian medic – who later died – who fired the photographs that killed Hodniuk.
His model was refuted by different members of his personal unit who have been later captured by Ukrainian troops and have been additionally being held as prisoners of warfare.
They mentioned they noticed Hodniuk emerge from the foxhole unarmed along with his fingers up after Kurashov known as for Ukrainians to come back out of their foxholes and give up.
Though they didn’t witness the taking pictures as a result of there have been explosions on the identical second, all three mentioned no person however Kurashov had been round after they heard the gunshots. One mentioned the medic accused by Kurashov was not current on the scene when the killing occurred.
Kurashov himself by no means testified. Based on courtroom reporters, his lawyer Anna Karpenko mentioned her consumer “sincerely repented” and that he believed he had merely been following orders from above to not take any prisoners.
Nikita Manevsky, the prosecutor who pushed for the harshest sentence, had argued Kurashov had confirmed “no regret” and “nothing however indifference” in the course of the trial.
Earlier this yr, Kurashov advised the BBC he had joined the Storm V assault unit in alternate for early launch from a distant penal colony in Russia the place he was serving a sentence for theft. Representatives from the Russian army advised the convicts that in the event that they joined the military and went to Ukraine their sentences could be expunged, Kurashov mentioned.
The recruitment of prisoners to struggle within the warfare in Ukraine – which Russia calls a “particular army operation” – is a identified follow.
Convicts who join are despatched to affix the widely poorly skilled Storm V penal army models.
Its troops are sometimes employed to affix “meat grinder” assaults on the entrance line – a tactic which sees waves of troopers push ahead relentlessly to attempt to put on down Ukrainian forces and expose their places to Russian artillery.
In Could the Ukrainian intelligence directorate (HUR) mentioned it had recorded greater than 150 instances of battlefield executions of POWs by Russian troopers since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Final yr the pinnacle of the Warfare Division on the Ukrainian Prosecutor-Basic’s Workplace advised the BBC that executions of prisoners of warfare by Russian forces had “clear indicators of being a part of a coverage” as they have been taking place throughout huge areas.
Ukrainian forces have additionally been accused of executing Russian prisoners of warfare, however the variety of such claims has been a lot smaller.
