A murderous fake

Maxim Butkevich. Photo: Stas Yurchenko/ґrati

Sign a petition for the release of Maxim Butkevich

Ukrainian human rights activist Maxim Butkevich, who fought against Russia as a platoon commander in the Berlingo battalion, was sentenced by the LPR court to 13 years of maximum regime, according to the website of the Investigative Committee of Russia.

Butkevich was declared guilty under articles on cruel treatment of the civilian population and the application of prohibited warfare methods (part 1 of Article 356 of the Criminal Code of Russia), attempted murder of two persons committed in a generally hazardous way (part 3 - paragraphs "A", "E" of part 2 of Article 105) and deliberate damage to someone else's property in a general hazardous way (part 2 of Article 167). As Kommersant clarifies , according to the 105th article, Butkevich was given 12 years, in the 356th-10 years, in the 167th-2 years. The final period was determined by a partial addition of punishments.

Kommersant cites a Butkevich’s criminal case: on June 4 in Severodonetsk, when the Ukrainian special forces were in one of the houses on Gagarin Street, where there were no battles, a platoon under the command of Butkevich allegedly occupied one of the apartments on the second floor of the house. It is claimed that at about 5 pm Butkevich, having seen from the window in the entrance of the house opposite civilians, he decided to shoot in their direction from the anti -tank grenade launcher “with the aim of intimidation”. Butkevich allegedly took the German grenade launcher Panzerfaust-3 and grenades to him from the subordinate, choosing ammunition with a fragmentation combat unit intended to defeat people, not technology. According to SK, Butkevich fired at the door of the entrance, but missed, and the grenade exploded 10 meters from the house, injuring his mother and daughter and knocking out the windows.

According to Kommersant, the Lugansk “court” recovered from Butkevich the full cost of the repair of the apartment, a million rubles of each of the “victims”, as well as 700 thousand rubles in favor of a man, although he demanded to pay him 300 thousand more.

A video of Butkevich’s interrogation was published, on which he gives “confessions”, clearly being under serious pressure.

Ukrainian human rights defenders note that Butkevich’s division was not cycling in residential arrays and did not have weapons that appears in the charges. Moreover, Butkevich was not in Severodonetsk, and on June 4, his unit was not in the Luhansk region at all.

“Ґrati” is written , referring to the correspondence of Butkevich with his colleagues, that in reality Butkevich was in the area of ​​Kiev and the Kiev region on the beginning of June and on the 14th. On June 14, Butkevich informed his colleagues that he could not meet, their unit is relocated and he passes the Poltava region.

Butkevich was captured in June. He commanded the 2nd platoon of the 3rd company of the 210th separate battalion of the Berlingo Armed Forces. In the area of ​​the settlements of the Golden and Gorskoye half of the platoon fell under the night mortar shelling, and the next morning the intelligence officer fooled the Ukrainian fighters surrounded.

Botkevich’s colleagues are known to the personality of the traitor who lured the Botkevich group in captivity; He was already released and fled to Israel.

• Butkevich is a former journalist, in the past he worked on all-Ukrainian television channels and the BBC. He became the co-founder of the "Gromad Radio", where in 2013-2014 he was a journalist and presenter. For many years he was engaged in human rights activities: he was part of the board of the Ukrainian representative office of Amnesty International, the Public Council at the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In recent years, he coordinated the project to help refugees and asylum seekers without borders. The organization helped, in particular, refugees from Central Asia, Russia and Belarus. In March 2022, the human rights activist joined the Armed Forces.

In November, Butkevich was awarded the Czech Prize of The Stories of Injustes Award ("History of Injustability"). The father received a reward for him. In the past, this award was awarded to fighters against the communist regime in Czechoslovakia. * Simultaneously with Butkevich, the “court” in the Donbass by 8 and a half and 18 and a half years of the colony was sentenced by the commander of the Azov group Victor Prize and a soldier of the same regiment Vladislav Shel. According to investigators, on March 23 last year, in one of the houses of Mariupol, he beat a local resident with his feet and a machine gun. The chel allegedly in March 2022, being at the observation post, equipped in a residential building on Metallurgov Avenue in Mariupol, "pursuing the goal of intimidating civilians," at least five times shot in an elderly man in the house on the contrary, but he, as the SK, remained alive. Both soldiers were announced guilty under part 1 of Article 356 of the Criminal Code of Russia, and Shelya in the attempt to murder on the motives of ideological and national hatred (part 3 of Article 30 - paragraph "l" of part 2 of Article 105).