Ukraine to try captured occupier who shot civilians in Kupiansk district

A captured Russian who shot two Ukrainian civilians in Kupyansk district, Kharkiv region, will be brought to trial. This was reported by Office of the Prosecutor General and Security Service of Ukraine.

SBU collects evidence on Russian occupier who shot two civilians in October 2024 and was later captured by the Defense Forces.

Then the Ukrainian military took him prisoner as a survivor of the fighting in the Kupyansk sector. The man in question is 21-year-old Russian citizen Artem Kulikov, who had previously served a sentence for robbery and theft. He was mobilized directly from a Russian prison to the 23rd Motorized Rifle Brigade of the Russian Armed Forces.

According to the investigation, the Russians, having taken up combat positions near one of the villages in the Kupyansk district, began "clearing" the settlement. The prosecutor's office clarified that this happened near the village of Petropavlivka.

On that day, Kulikov and his accomplice imprisoned two locals who were helping a fellow villager evacuate to the government-controlled territory.

The occupiers tried to "beat" information about the location of Ukrainian troops from the victims. Having failed to get the information, Kulikov shot two men at point blank range with his assault rifle right in the house of their fellow villager.

It was established that the Russian fired eight bullets at them. People died of their injuries on the spot.

During the interrogation of the prisoner, it was found that the Russian military command regularly orders its subordinates to kill civilians in the temporarily occupied territories.

Kulikov was served a notice of suspicion under the article on war crimes combined with premeditated murder committed by a group of persons. The indictment against the suspect has been sent to court. He faces life imprisonment.

• On May 28, in Ukraine, suspicion was served on a Russian serviceman who executed two Ukrainian soldiers and was later captured.
• The Special Forces showed how they captured a group of Russians, one of whom shot unarmed Ukrainian soldiers in Kursk region. Other people involved in the war crime were eliminated by special forces.