Children among the victims

Russia sentences its own soldiers for murder

Russian positions

(Bild: dpa)

Two Russian soldiers have been sentenced to life imprisonment for wiping out an entire extended Ukrainian family. The two have a total of nine lives on their conscience - including children among the victims. 

Around a year after the murder of nine Ukrainian civilians, the soldiers stood trial in southern Russia. According to the investigators, the two accused entered a house in the town of Volnovakha in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, which was occupied by Russian troops. There, they shot the family with their silencer weapons.

The defendants deny the crime and have announced an appeal against the verdict, as reported by the Russian state news agency Tass.

Defendants allegedly killed out of hatred
Initially, the attempt to procure vodka, which was banned during the war, was seen as the motive. The verdict now states that the perpetrators committed the murder out of "political, ideological, racist, national or religious hatred". The trial itself took place behind closed doors.

Public reports on verdicts rare
Kiev has repeatedly accused Russian troops of serious crimes in the war zone. Moscow usually denies such offenses. The Russian parliament has even passed a law that criminalizes the alleged defamation of the Russian army. Public reports of such sentences - and even more so with justifications that confirm Ukrainian accusations - are considered comparatively rare.