In Ukraine, a Russian military man was sentenced to life in prison for shooting an evacuation vehicle

A Russian serviceman has been found guilty of violating the laws and customs of war and sentenced to life imprisonment for shooting down a civilian car in which residents of the Chernihiv region were trying to evacuate in 2022. The Prosecutor General's Office reports this.

According to the case materials, in March 2022, eight civilian residents of the Pryluky district, including three children, were traveling in Skoda Superb and Renault Megane cars from the Nizhyn district towards the city of Ichnya, Pryluky district, with the aim of leaving for a safer place.

On the highway between the villages of Ivanhorod and Krupychpole, two Russian "Tiger" armored vehicles with soldiers of the occupation army drove towards the evacuation vehicles.

The military of the aggressor state unprovokedly fired on the cars of civilians with assault rifles and a machine gun.

"Civilian vehicles did not pose any threat to the occupiers," the prosecutor's office noted.

The driver of the Skoda was killed and his passenger was injured as a result of the shelling. No other civilians were injured.

After the attack, the convict and his accomplice shot at the Skoda's gas cylinder, destroying the car.

The investigation established that after committing the crime, the convict called the commander and said that "we managed to shoot only one car and the driver."

A Russian serviceman was found guilty of violating the laws and customs of war, combined with premeditated murder, committed by a group of persons (Part 1 of Article 28, Part 2 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

The court sentenced him to life imprisonment.

• On May 23, the Prosecutor General's Office reported that since the start of the full-scale invasion , it has opened 75 criminal proceedings into the killing of 268 Ukrainian prisoners of war by Russian soldiers.
• The number of executed Ukrainian military personnel increased due to orders from the Russian leadership to kill prisoners of war.