Russian Soldier Sentenced for Brutal Treatment of Civilians and Looting
Officer shot and wounded two Ukrainian men and ordered various premises robbed.
A Russian commander has been sentenced in absentia to 12 years in prison for looting and the brutal treatment of civilians in violation of the laws and customs of war during the occupation of two villages in Ukraine’s north-eastern region of Chernihiv.
Armen Abgarian, originally from Kurganinsk near Krasnodar in south-western Russia, lives in Yurga, a city in the region of Kemerovo in south-central Siberia where his military unit number 21005 is also stationed.
According to the investigation, Abgarian led the 7th consolidated rifle company of Russia’s 74th separate guards motorised rifle brigade, which entered the villages of Andriivka and Pakul on March 22 and controlled them until March 30. Pakul lies about 12 kilometres from the Ukrainian-Belarusian border and 20 kilometres from Andriivka; both villages had a pre-war population of fewer than 1,000 people.
On March 24, Russian soldiers stopped Pakul resident Oleh P at a checkpoint. As they searched his belongings, they found a photo allegedly discrediting the Russian military. The soldiers then tied the man’s hands, covered his head, put him in a car and brought to the basement of the local forest department. There they beat him to extort information about Ukrainian soldiers allegedly hiding in Pakul and about villagers who had weapons.
On the same day, the Russians stopped another civilian, Serhiy Y, on the highway near Pakul. The man, an entrepreneur, is the owner of the Andriivski Ozera estate, a recreational centre in Andriivka. Searching his car, they found a chevron of the Armed Forces of Ukraine belonging to the man's son. They blindfolded and brought Serhiy Y to the same basement to question him about the whereabouts of his son and his military unit.
The soldiers did not get any information from either villager. Early the next day, on March 25, Abgarian came to the basement and fired five shots from a pistol. Oleg P was wounded in one elbow and thigh and Serhiy Ya in the shoulder, cheek and lips; he also lost five teeth. Both men lost consciousness, but when they came to they managed to escape through the open basement door. The men reached Oleg's sister, who called a neighbour, a nurse, who provided them with first aid. Both hid there until the Russians left the village.
On March 29, Abgarian went to the Andriivski Ozera estate and ordered his subordinates to search the area and take various items. He threatened the centre’s employees with a machine gun while directing the looting.
The Russians took tools and equipment, including chainsaws, a sander, a hand router, batteries for a lawnmower and a boat motor, a radio receiver, a video recorder, video cameras, a WI-FI router, two grinders, a tablet, an electric tile and a metal detector. The stolen items were valued at nearly 80,000 hryvnias (2,000 US dollars). The material was loaded into a Ural car.
On March 30 the Russian military left the villages as Ukraine’s armed forces approached.
In January 2023, Abgarian was notified of the suspicion and on May 10 the Chernihiv district court granted permission for a special trial in absentia, because the accused did not appear in court on summonses.
At the trial victims and witnesses confirmed the testimonies of the pre-trial investigation. Oleg P said that he had lived with his sister during the occupation of Pakul. On the day he was detained, he was on his way to feed his dogs. The Russian military saw an avatar of a tank on his mobile phone, pulled a cap over his eyes and took him to the basement where they later brought Serhiy Ya. The Russians allegedly promised to release both men once they had checked the data in their phones.
The accused gave instructions to other soldiers who then followed them.
“Armen was the main [person] among them,” Oleg P said in court, adding that he saw his face because the cap pulled over his head slipped off.
Abgarian asked both men the names of the villagers who served in the army and had participated in the war in eastern Ukraine since 2014. Neither man replied.
The commander then accused the two civilians of helping the Ukrainian military, pulled out a pistol from his holster and started shooting. Oleg was sitting bent over in a chair and a bullet went through his arm then into his leg. Wounded, Serhiy Y coughed up blood. When they heard that the Russians had left, the two men saw one open door in the basement and decided to take the risk and run through it. Their legs were not tied. During the pre-trial investigation, Oleg recognised Abgarian as the soldier who shot him from among the four photographs investigators showed him.
When the Russians robbed his recreation centre, Serhii K and his wife were not in the village. They had fled on March 25 after he escaped from the basement. The Russian military had searched the couple's house and found their son's military uniform, and Serhii K also told the court that the Russians had stolen personal items, including pillowcases, towels, sheets and mattresses.
A handyman from the Ozera estate also recognised Abgarian from one of the photos. He told the court that he was at the recreation centre when ten Russian soldiers arrived. Abgarian was the leader of the group and the witness said that he ordered him to be guarded at gunpoint and prevented from leaving the centre without permission.
Another witness, a woman who is the director of the Andriivska Gymnasium, also recognised Abgarian. SHe said that he introduced himself as the commandant of their village and as a senior member of the Russian military.
According to Ukraine’s security service (SBU), after the Russian army left the Chernihiv region Abgarian returned to the city of Yurga where he still lives with his wife and son. The investigators found that the military unit in which the accused served indeed controlled the two villages; they also analysed Abgarian’s social media.
Ukrainian investigative journalists identified Abgarian shortly after the suspicion’s announcement, based on his social media activity. The accused actively shared photos on his VKontakte and Odnoklassniki profiles. Later, Abgarian hid his profile in social networks and deleted military photos after he had been identified and was reported of the suspicion.
Issued on September 14, the sentence against the Russian serviceman is the maximum foreseen under Part 1 of Article 438 of the criminal code about the violation of the laws and customs of war. His lawyer, who defended him on behalf of the regional centre for free legal aid in the Chernihiv region, can appeal the verdict within 30 days from the moment of its announcement.
