Tuesday, 7 May ‘24

Russian Soldier Sentenced for Sexual Violence  

On April 23, the Brovary city and district court found Russian soldier Artem Shemenev guilty of the rape and abuse of civilians in violation of the laws and customs of war as per Part 1 of Article 438 of the criminal code. The 21-year-old was sentenced in absentia to 12 years in prison for raping  a Ukrainian woman in the Kyiv region in March 2022; he is also accused of abusing her husband. The court deliberated in favour of the victim’s civil claim and awarded her a compensation of one million hryvnas (25,000 US dollars) 

According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, the victims and witnesses testified behind closed doors and their personal data and names were withheld for security reasons. Similarly, details of the verdict werenot published in the court register. The sentence can be appealed within 30 days. 

Suspicion Issued Over Seizure of Chernobyl Plant 

Ukraine’s police investigators issued a suspicion in absentia against Nikolay Mulyukin, the deputy general director of a joint stock company that is part of Russia’s state nuclear agency Rosatom. He is accused of involvement in the theft and destruction of property of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant worth more than one billion hryvnas (25 million dollars) in violation of the laws and customs of war under Part 2 of Article 28 and Part 1 of Article 438 of the criminal code.  

On February 24, 2022, the Russian military seized the Chernobyl plant, near the city of Pripyat in the Kyiv region, and took the station's employees and the Ukrainian guards hostage. In 1986 the facility was the site of a major nuclear disaster, which was triggered by the explosion of the plant’s reactor No.4. It stopped operating in 2000 and the Ukrainian state enterprise Chornobyl NPP is tasked with ensuring the decommissioning of the plant and the storage of radioactive waste. 

According to the investigation, the 64-year-old official was at the Chernobyl plant from February 24 to March 31, 2022, when Ukraine’s forces regained control of the facility. He reportedly ordered part of the plant's equipment to be dismantled, loaded onto military equipment and taken to Belarus. He also instructed to destroy what could not be taken. The equipment included a radiological laboratory, sources of ionising radiation, almost 700 computers, 344 official cars and dosimeters. According to the office of the prosecutor peneral, prosecutors and investigators identified the culprits through video surveillance cameras and the testimonies of employees and national guards who were hostages. 

In May 2022, police investigators issued suspicions in absentia for the occupation of the facility. They reported it to Serhey Burakov, 51-year-old Rosgvardiya’s police major-general; major-general Oleg Yakushev, 53-year-old deputy commander of the Siberian District of the Russian Guard and Andrey Frolenkov, 52, police colonel and deputy commander of the special purpose detachment of the Russian Guard in Russia’s region of Bryansk.  

Russian Soldier Accused of Murdering Ship Captain 

Police investigators reported asuspicion in absentia against Erzhan Amandusov, a Russian soldier from Russia’s southwestern city of Orenburg, on charges of killing the captain of a civilian vessel in violation of the laws and customs of war, combined with intentional homicide (Part 2 of Article 438 of the criminal code. 

According to the investigation, on the evening of November 1, 2022, during the occupation of the Kherson region, the 32-year-old soldier was on the embankment of the occupied city of Gola Prystan, 15 kilometres from the regional port city of Kherson. He fired at least 17 shots from a machine gun at the passengers of the civilian vessel, which was approaching the shore. The tugboat ran daily on the Dniepro river from Kherson to Holaya Prystan. The 35-year-old boat captain died from a gunshot wound to the head, while another person was injured. 

Suspicion Issued Against Director of Russian Missile Manufacturer 

Investigators of Ukraine’s security service (SBU) reported a suspicion in absentia to Farid Abdrakhmanov, the general director of the Russian research and development bureau Novator, for aiding and abetting an aggressive war as per Part 5 of Article 27 and Part 2 of Article 437 of the criminal code.  

Novator manufactures the Kalibr sea-based cruise missiles. According to the investigation, the 69-year-old Russian official organised and managed the production and delivery of the missiles on a large scale to the military units of the Russian Navy to wage an aggressive war against Ukraine. These missiles, added the investigation, were used to strike Ukraine's civilian infrastructure and energy facilities.