Donbass sentences Kiev troops to prison over crimes against civilians

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
21 Aug 2023 23:58

The Ukranian soldiers have been found guilty of charges including "cruel treatment of the civilian population" and "attempted murder."

Ukrainian soldiers take part in a training session in Wiltshire, England where Australian Armed Forces are supporting the UK-led training of Ukrainian recruits, on February 1, 2023 (AFP)

The People's Republics of the Donbass have handed down harsh prison sentences to five Ukrainian soldiers, according to a report from Russia's Investigative Committee on Monday.

The statement from the Investigative Committee indicated that Andrey Klementovich, Artur Sivitsky, and Ivan Melnikovich were each sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment. The committee presented visuals of the three individuals handcuffed within a courtroom's defendant cage.

According to the Investigative Committee, these soldiers were found guilty of charges including "cruel treatment of the civilian population" and "attempted murder."

The court's assertion was that these three soldiers were active in the conflict in Mariupol, a city that Russia took control of in May 2022. They were also accused of impeding civilians from utilizing a humanitarian corridor to leave the city.

In the eastern Ukrainian city of Lugansk, serviceman Bogdan Smaga received a 17-year prison sentence for inflicting injuries on civilians, as per the same source.

Another Ukrainian soldier, Igor Lemeshev, was subjected to a 20-year prison term for his involvement in the shelling of a residential area, resulting in the death of a civilian.

This is happening a few days after Ukrainian forces suffered around 400 casualties, and 16 military vehicles were put out of service in the Donetsk region in the past 24 hours, as per the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Concurrently, Russian forces thwarted five Ukrainian offensives in the region and also repelled four attacks in the Kupyansk region and another in South Donetsk.

In Kupyansk, Ukraine lost over 130 soldiers while another 40 were eliminated near the village of Krasnyi Lyman as the Ukrainian armed forces suffered 190 casualties in Zaporozhye.