Russian special forces captain wanted for murder killed in Ukraine

Eduard Ulman, a former special forces captain wanted for murder, has died in the war in Ukraine, news website New Buryatia reported Friday.

Ulman had been on the run since 2007, when the verdict was due in a case brought against him for shooting unarmed civilians in Chechnya. A court in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don sentenced him to 14 years in a maximum-security prison in absentia.

Despite news of his death, Ulman remained on the Russian Interior Ministry’s wanted database, news channel Sibirsky Express observed, which was confirmed by Novaya Gazeta Europe.

According to court documents, in 2002 an intelligence unit led by Ulman was lying in wait near a Chechen village for a car thought to be carrying militants and a field commander. A car then appeared which fit the description, and failed to stop for the soldiers. The soldiers opened fire, killing one passenger and wounding another. The car turned out not to be carrying militants, but unarmed villagers.

Ulman reported the incident and said he was given orders to kill the remaining detainees and destroy the car, which they did. Ulman and his subordinates were then tried for premeditated murder. The soldiers were twice acquitted, but a military court heard the case for a third time in 2007, and found Ulman guilty. His subordinates — only one of whom was in the dock — were given prison terms ranging from nine to 12 years.