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Two Russian soldiers sentenced for war crimes in Ukraine

31.05.2022 13:00
A Ukrainian court on Tuesday sentenced two Russian soldiers to 11-and-a-half years in prison for shelling a town in eastern Ukraine, news agencies reported.
Massive destruction after Russian shelling in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.
Massive destruction after Russian shelling in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.Photo: PAP/Elena Dolzhenko

Alexander Bobikin, an artillery driver, and Alexander Ivanov, gunner, both pleaded guilty last week, the Reuters news agency reported.

"The guilt of Bobikin and Ivanov has been proven in full," Judge Evhen Bolybok was quoted as saying during the trial at the Kotelevska district court in central Ukraine.

The two Russians have admitted to being part of an artillery unit that fired at areas near Ukraine's second-largest city of Kharkiv from the Belgorod region in Russia, according to Reuters.

The shelling resulted in the destruction of targets including an educational facility in the town of Derhachi northwest of Kharkiv, prosecutors said.

Earlier this month, a Ukrainian court sentenced a Russian soldier to life in prison for killing an unarmed civilian in the first war crimes trial since Moscow's invasion.

(gs)

Source: PAP, Reuters