In Zaporizhzhia, a Russian soldier is on trial, accused of executing a Ukrainian prisoner of war. For the first time, the accused in such a category of war crimes is physically present in the dock. His fellow soldiers, who were also captured, are testifying as witnesses for the prosecution, reported «Idel.Realities»*.
According to the investigation, Russian serviceman Dmitry Kurashov, a native of Perm Krai, shot Ukrainian soldier Vitaliy Hodnyuk on January 6, 2024, when he was surrendering. This occurred during the Russian military's assault on the «Wolf» position of the Ukrainian Defense Forces.
When the Ukrainian Armed Forces regained the positions, they found the dead soldiers, two of them lying near the dugout in atypical combat poses and unarmed. Witnesses reported that Kurashov shouted at the Ukrainian soldiers to come out with their hands up, and when one of the soldiers came out, he simply shot him.
26-year-old machine gunner Dmitry Kurashov, a native of the city of Gremyachinsk in Perm Krai, Russia, was sentenced to five years. His first sentence was for assaulting a police officer on duty, escaping from custody. The second — for theft and embezzlement.
In court, Kurashov did not admit to killing Hodnyuk, stating that another soldier did the shooting. One of Kurashov's arguments was that if he had shot, he would have aimed for the head. He admitted to killing a Ukrainian soldier in the dugout.
Since February 2022, at least 71 Ukrainian prisoners of war have been executed by Russian or Russia-associated forces, with several dozen extrajudicial executions currently under investigation. Such incidents have significantly increased over the past year, notes the Ukrainian prosecutor's office: about 80 percent of the more than 100 investigated cases of executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war occurred in the last year.
The killing of prisoners of war is a war crime. In the mid-20th century, 59 countries, including the USA, France, the UK, and the USSR, signed the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War. The document was signed by the countries shortly after the end of World War II, in August 1949. The mass executions of prisoners of war during World War II were one of the reasons for the adoption of the convention.
* Recognized in Russia as a «foreign agent» and «undesirable» organization.
Photo: Idel.Realities