Civilians shot dead – Confessing soldier convicted of ‘fake news’

Civil rights organization OVD-Info announced this on Thursday. The Russian soldier allegedly told the independent investigative portal “Vashnye Istorii” (“Important Stories”) last summer that he shot a Ukrainian civilian in Kiev. The incident is said to have taken place about a year ago at the beginning of the war in the village of Andriyivka. Survivors identified the soldier as one of the perpetrators, research shows.

Orders to kill and plunder
He stated that his superiors had given him orders to kill and loot in Ukraine. In the spring of 2022, Russian troops occupied the Kiev region for several weeks. After their departure, images from the town of Bucha in particular caused great horror, where hundreds of civilian bodies were found. Despite numerous photographic evidence, eyewitness accounts and international investigations, the Russian government claims that Ukrainians “staged” the horrors.

Renowned Kremlin opponent Ilya Yashin was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison in Moscow late last year for publicly denouncing the massacre. The Kremlin generally denies war crimes in Ukraine and has criminalized it to damage the military’s reputation. This includes, for example, criticism of the armed forces and mercenary groups. Freedom of expression in relation to the war is being severely curtailed in Russia.

The soldier, who admitted to the murder of a civilian in the interview, has now been sentenced to five and a half years in prison. A prison sentence of up to 15 years would have been possible.