Translated material
Four days for the verdict
For which the Ukrainian military judges new courts in the "new" territories
Photo: Nikolai Trishin / TASS
After the start of the special operation, the courts in the annexed territories of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions of Ukraine issued at least 163 sentences against the Ukrainian military, the journalists of “Virgin”* based on official messages of the RF IC and these vessels calculated. Their criminal cases are considered by the Supreme Courts of the DPR and the LPR, the judges do not particularly ceremony and take a huge time for the Ukrainian military. The average period of imprisonment is 21 years. The minimum is eight years of the colony. As a rule, the defenders are lawyers for their intended purpose, and the processes themselves pass actually behind closed doors - without the presence of the press. "New" talks about several court cases in which the most severe sentences are issued.
According to the decisions adopted by the Plenum of the Supreme Court, the courts in the regions annexed to Russia in October 2022 began to consider cases from September 21, 2023. Vladimir Putin signed the relevant laws in April 2023. In the DPR, the authorities created 42 new vessels, including the Supreme Court of the Donetsk People's Republic. There will be 35 Russian courts in the LPR, and among them the LPR Armed Forces. In Zaporozhye, only eight ships were created, and in the Kherson region - 16. The arbitration court will be in each of the four regions.
The main processes against the Ukrainian military are considered by the courts of the DPR and the LPR.
Most of the sentences (155) were issued under the article for “cruelty to the civilian population and the use of prohibited methods in the armed conflict” (part 1 of article 356 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
Following an article on the murder (Article 105 of the Criminal Code) - 139. In 71 cases, this article was combined with an article on attempted crime , which indicates a minor murder.
The third place in the number of sentences is “intentional damage to other people's property in a generally dangerous way” (part 2 of article 167 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), according to which 37 people were convicted.
Among other things, they are also judged for a number of other crimes: intentional infliction of medium severity of harm to health (Article 112), beatings and other violent acts based on enmity in relation to a Russian soldier (Article 116), violent acts of a sexual nature (Article 132), deliberate causing mild harm to health (Article 115), rape (Article 131),, rape (Article 131). The abduction of a person (Article 126) and robbery (Article 162).
"For an attempt to seize power"
One of the most severe sentences, then the DPR court, proclaimed the British Citizens Eiden Eshin and Shonu Pinner, as well as the subject of Morocco, Saadun Brahim, to the British Armed Forces. All three were found guilty of mercenaries (Article 430 of the Criminal Code of the DPR), forcibly seizure of power (Article 323), committing a crime by a group of persons (part 2 of article 34) and undergoing training in order to carry out terrorist activities (Article 232).
The Supreme Court of the DPR examined the case as soon as possible - in just four days. The press was not admitted to the process. All news came from the court appeared in the Russian state media.
For example, propagandists argued that the accused admitted to "undergoing training in order to carry out terrorist activities." Prochrevsky journalists published only brief videos from this process. At the same time, the relatives of the convicts repeatedly said that their relatives did not receive normal protection, and the lawyers provided to them did nothing.
All three served in the Armed Forces of Ukraine for a long time - and having concluded a contract in accordance with national legislation. However, in Donetsk it was interpreted in their own way. “The investigation found that foreign mercenaries for the remuneration took part in the armed aggression of Ukraine in forcibly seizing power in the DPR,” reported with reference to the court of RIA Novosti.
The verdict was sentenced on June 9, 2022. Foreigners were sentenced to the highest degree of punishment - the death penalty. However, it was not executed. All convicted military was released from captivity on September 21, 2022 as part of an exchange. Since then, death sentences have not been passed, since the DPR abolished them after joining Russia in October 2022.
Under threat of torture and alibi
On March 10, 2023, the “Supreme Courts of the LPR and the DPR” condemned the human rights activist Maxim Butkevich, as well as the members of the Azov, Victor Like and Vladislav Shel, who was a fighter in the Armed Forces of the Armed Forces of the Armed Forces. All three were appointed deadlines in a maximum security colony: Shelu - 18.5 years, Botkevich - 13 years and I will be 8.5.
The statement of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation says that Shelya was accused of shooting from a machine gun at a peaceful resident, and the funerals of abuse of a resident of Mariupol, to whom he "struck the body and face of the machine gun."
According to the court’s decision, Butkevich was found guilty of cruelty to the civilian population and the application of prohibited methods in the armed conflict, as well as in the attempt to kill two persons with a generally hazardous way and deliberate damage to another's property.
Butkevich served in the Berlingo battalion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine as a platoon commander. According to SK, on June 4 in Severodonetsk, he shot from an anti -tank grenade launcher at the entrance of a residential building. “As a result, two civilians received bodily harm, the property was also destroyed,” the SK said in a statement. Butkevich, said in the department, "fully pleaded guilty, repented of his deed."
At the same time, colleagues and friends of Butkevich told the publication “ґrati” that on June 4, his unit could not be in Severodonetsk. According to Botkevich close, he ended up in the Donbass not earlier than June 14, and before that he was in Kyiv and the Kyiv region.
Information about this is confirmed by personal correspondence, which are at the disposal of journalists.
Sasha Fainberg , human rights activist:
“According to my correspondence with Maxim, I have no doubt that he was not in Severodonetsk on June 4: he was in touch every day, which is impossible in conditions of hostilities. Moreover, when his unit was sent to any task, he warned that he would not be in touch for some time. What, in fact, was happening several times: once in April and now on June 19. ”
During the consideration of the appeal against the verdict (March 13), Butkevich said that he pleaded guilty to the threat of torture. “On the one hand, I was told that if I agree, then after being convicted, they will change me in a short time to the convicted prisoner of war of the RF Armed Forces. As other arguments, it was explained to me that in case of refusal, I would be subjected to various methods of physical impact. Some [methods] were demonstrated to me, ”the human rights activist added. The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation left the verdict unchanged.
Thirty
The maximum courts were appointed to the military for 30 years. There are two such sentences, both are part of the same case. They were issued on November 1, 2023 against members of the Zaporozhye battalion Dmitry Dobrovolsky and Alexander Romashin. Both were found guilty of cruelty to the civilian population and the application of prohibited methods in the armed conflict, as well as in the murder of two or more persons, committed by an organized group based on political, ideological hatred.
One of the last sentences, according to which an almost thirty -year term of imprisonment was appointed, was proclaimed in February 2024. The Supreme Court of the DPR sentenced 33 Ukrainian military who served in the 36th separate Marine Corps and the 17th Separate Tank Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
They were appointed from 27 to 29 years in prison with a sentence in a maximum security penal colony.
According to the IC of the Russian Federation, the defendants were found guilty of articles on cruelty to the civilian population, murder, attempted murder and intentionally damage to other people's property.
According to the prosecution, in the early days of his - from February 24 to March 10, 2022 - the Ukrainian military was fired at, under which residential buildings fell in the settlements of Sartan, Sakhanka, Talakovka, Old Crimea, Zaichenko and Dzerzhinskoye in the Donetsk region.
“As a result, a 17-year-old civil resident died, a woman’s shells were caused to a woman, 42 households and two civilian vehicles were damaged and destroyed,” the UK said.
The department revealed the names and surnames of some of the convicts: Roman Shostak, Vladimir Torshin, Denis Nazarov, Artem Schwydka, Alexander Oleinik, Alexander Plotnikov, Yuri Akimov, Sergey Paliychuk, Sergey Dovgalyuk, Mikhail Izotov, Evgeny Poptsov.
Sentenced to life
In addition to the deadlines in a colony of maximum security and death penalty, the judges appointed a life imprisonment in a special regime colony. At least two such sentences were issued this year. On March 6, the DPR of the military Armed Forces of Ukraine Alexander Podarsky and Sergei Georgiu found guilty of murder based on political and ideological hatred, attempt, as well as in cruel treatment of the civilian population. According to the court, in the period from March to April 2022, at a combat position on Karpov Avenue in Mariupol, the Ukrainian military, by order of the command, allegedly shot seven residents from machine guns. As a result, five people died, and the two victims managed to escape. Podarsky and Georgiu appointed life sentences.
On March 27, the DPR Supreme Court issued two sentences at once with the maximum sentence of two Ukrainian military, Vladislav Sygysy and Pavel Gusev. The first was found guilty of the murder of two persons based on hatred and enmity in relation to the social group, as well as in the application of prohibited means and methods in the armed conflict.
The court found that in March 2022, the Azov unit, in which the Sygys service was held, occupied the building of the Ordzhonikidze court of the city of Mariupol. Next to him was equipped with artillery positions, from which the personnel fired at the nearest suburbs.
Supreme Court of the DPR:
“Sygys, being in a patrol, as if he had discovered two unarmed men in civilian clothes next to the protected territory. Passers -by on their sleeves were white bandages. Sygys, believing that men can assist the Russian military, as well as the national police of the DPR, began to shoot at them from the machine gun. Passers -by died on the spot. "
Previously, Sygys was convicted in December 2023 for shelling from the artillery guns of the Lebedinskoye village in the DPR and sentenced to 24 years of strict regime. After the second sentence, he will serve his sentence in a special regime colony.
On a similar charges, a life sentence was appointed to the soldier Gusev. In court it was established that on March 20, 2022 he was in a combat post in one of the residential buildings in Mariupol. Noticing two men who walked along the street and ignored his order to stop, he fired at least 10 shots from the AKS-74 machine. The victims died on the spot from the wounds.
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The minimum period that the Ukrainian military was appointed - eight years of colony. Such a sentence was sentenced on June 14, 2023 against Yuri Zakopets. He was found guilty of the abduction of a person by a group of persons by prior conspiracy, with the threat of violence that is life -threatening, and with the use of weapons.
According to the IC, in October 2021, the ned and two of his subordinates noticed an employee of the joint center for control and coordination, demanded to proceed to the territory controlled by him. After the refusal, the military shot several times over his head, tied and taken away in an unknown direction, after which they kept there for more than 140 days. The accused fully pleaded guilty. The case against two of his colleagues was allocated in a separate production.
About what matters in these courts are considered in relation to Russian military personnel and members of volunteer battalions, as well as non -bombans - in the following material.