For the first time in history, an occupier was sentenced to life for shooting a captured Ukrainian defender

For the first time in Ukraine, a Russian soldier who shot a captured Ukrainian soldier has received a life sentence, said Security Services of Ukraine.

"According to the evidence base of the SSU and the National Police, a Russian serviceman who shot a Ukrainian prisoner of war in the Zaporizhzhia sector was sentenced to life in prison. This is the first sentence in the history of Ukraine when the occupier received such a term for the shooting of a member of the Defense Forces," the statement said.

The convict is a 27-year-old citizen of the aggressor country, Dmitry Kurashov. The investigation found that he had previously served a sentence in a Russian prison for theft, and in November 2023 signed a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense in exchange for amnesty.

In the army of the occupiers, he was given the position of a rifleman of the Storm-V assault unit of the 127th Motorized Rifle Division of the Eastern Military District of the Russian Federation.

According to the case, on January 6, 2024, Kurashov, along with other invaders, attacked Ukrainian defenders near the village of Pryiutne – during the assault, he shot at point-blank range an AFU soldier who surrendered during the battle, when used all his ammunition to repel the attack.

The fallen defender is Vitaliy Hodnyuk, a senior soldier with the 226th Battalion of the 127th Separate Territorial Defense Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

"It has been established that Kurashov made aimed shots at the Ukrainian with a Kalashnikov rifle. As a result of his wounds, the Ukrainian serviceman died on the spot," the special service writes.

However, on the same day, the Defense Forces drove the occupiers out of these positions and captured Kurashov and four occupiers, who were the only survivors.

Eventually, Kurashov was found guilty under the war crimes article.

Media Graty reports that during the investigation, the occupier claimed that he was not involved in the shooting and pointed to another stormtrooper, but during the court hearing he decided to plead guilty, hoping for a quick conclusion of the case and that he would be included in the prisoner exchange. The invader also refused to testify and make the last statement.

"The prosecution refuted Kurashov's version that Hodnyuk was killed by another Russian soldier. The court interrogated the captured fighters of the Storm-V unit, examined investigative experiments with them, drone video and the phone of a Ukrainian soldier at the positions after the battle on January 6, as well as examinations, including the body of the deceased. The investigation did not find the weapon used to shoot Hodnyuk due to lack of access to the crime scene," the media outlet reports.

• The prosecutor general's Office reported LIGA.net that as of July 2025, during the full-scale war, Ukrainian courts have delivered real sentences to 18 war criminals who were prisoners.
• In early November, in Ukraine, in absentia announced suspicion a native of the Luhansk region, who carved a "Z" symbol on the forehead of a Ukrainian prisoner of war.