Five Russian servicemen have been accused of murder and looting in the combat zone, the case is being investigated by military investigators in the Kursk region, reported «Kommersant» citing a source and court documents.
One of them, Mikhail Osipov, was drafted from a colony where he was serving a sentence for murder in the «DNR». According to court documents, Osipov and other defendants are accused of banditry, murder committed by a group with particular cruelty, and looting.
One of the lawyers said that it concerns an assault unit directly involved in combat operations. According to him, the investigation accuses the servicemen of killing a comrade with whom they had a conflict. However, the defendants themselves say they dealt with a so-called «runner» who was trying to evade participation in combat operations, and they deny looting and robbery, claiming they took some small items from abandoned buildings «that could be useful for arranging a soldier's life».
Details of the case are not disclosed, but the materials in the case of Alexander Lisunov, who was arrested along with Osipov but sentenced in a special order due to a guilty plea for concealing a crime, include one of the episodes charged.
According to the case materials, the servicemen, «seeking to cause maximum suffering, fired at the victim with at least seven bullets from an AK-74, aiming at the legs». After that, they finished him off with a shot to the head. To hide the traces of the crime, the body was dragged into the basement of a destroyed building, doused with fuel, and set on fire.
This is not the first case of Russian military being accused of crimes in the Kursk region. Previously, ASTRA* wrote about a previously convicted 39-year-old Russian serviceman Dmitry Stenkin in the village of Giryi, Kursk region, who attacked a large family: shot Olesya Larina, wounded her husband Igor, and captured their daughters aged six and ten.
* Recognized in Russia as a «foreign agent».