Russian Soldier Gets Life for Killing Boat Captain
Shooter fired “at least a dozen” shots at the civilian vessel.
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A Russian serviceman has been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of the 35-year-old captain of a tugboat as it moored in occupied Hola Prystan in the Kherson region.
Erzhan Amandusov, from Russia’s Orenburg region, was found guilty in absentia on March 12 by the Kherson City Court.
The court heard how, on the evening of November 1, 2022, Kherson resident Mykola, not his real name, approached the Hola Prystan waterfront to ask when the next tugboat to Kherson was scheduled to leave. At the time, all water transport had to stop at a Russian checkpoint where occupying forces inspected every passenger’s documents.
As he approached the checkpoint, Mykola heard an engine and saw a tugboat nearing the shore. He then witnessed a Russian soldier open fire on the vessel with a Kalashnikov rifle without any warning.
“There were at least a dozen shots. I heard the bullets pinging off the boat’s hull,” Mykola told the court. “The tugboat started to drift toward the opposite bank and then I heard a splash, as if someone had jumped overboard. That’s when the shooter saw me and ordered me to get on the ground with my hands behind my head.
“He searched me but found nothing. The soldier asked what I was doing there. I explained that I wanted to find out the tugboat’s schedule and asked him to let me go unharmed. He threatened me, warning me never to come back and not to tell anyone what I saw or I would be shot.”
Mykola said that he clearly remembered the Russian soldier who shot at the tugboat, explaining that all the soldiers present had their faces uncovered. The man who detailed him stood out because of his Asian features.
Ukrainian investigators later established that the soldier fired at least 17 shots at the civilians on board the tugboat. The vessel’s captain, from the RBT-1 Rydsa, was killed at the scene.
The killing was widely reported the next day by pro-Russian occupation media and social media channels. They confirmed that on the evening of November 1, 2022, a tugboat transporting civilians from Kherson to Hola Prystan in the Kherson region had been fired upon.
Some occupation media outlets claimed that no one was injured in the incident, while others reported that the tugboat had been attacked by unidentified armed people. This narrative was also disseminated by Russia’s main state propaganda news agency, TASS.
Other occupation media blamed the attack on so-called Ukrainian terrorists, a term used to refer to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
On the morning of November 2, 2022, the victim’s sister received a phone call from an unknown man. He told her that a Russian sniper had killed her brother the previous evening in Hola Prystan and that he would cover all the funeral costs.
“The body was later delivered to the Kherson river port and my brother was buried on November 4,” the sister said. “I was given his death certificate that same day. This same man explained to me that my brother’s killer had been found and would be punished. According to him, the serviceman had just returned from a rotation and didn’t know a civilian tugboat was passing through the area, which is why he opened fire on it.”
The unknown man also told her the name of the killer: Erzhan Amandusov.
Ukrainian investigators subsequently identified Amandusov as a 34-year-old serviceman with the 33rd Motorised Rifle Regiment (military unit 58550) of the 20th Motorised Rifle Division, which is part of the 8th Combined Arms Army of the Southern Military District of the Russian Armed Forces.
Mykola was shown photographs of Amandusov and identified him as the shooter.
In September 2023, investigators exhumed the victim’s body. A forensic medical examination revealed a gunshot wound to the head. The report’s finding was that “this wound constitutes grievous bodily harm due to the danger it posed to life”. Experts did not rule out that the injuries could have been sustained on November 1, 2022.
The court found Amandusov guilty of a war crime under Part 2 of Article 438 of the criminal code of Ukraine, classifying his actions as a targeted attack on a civilian vessel combined with the willful killing of a civilian.
“The accused is a citizen of the Russian Federation and, in accordance with international humanitarian law, is therefore a combatant – a participant in an international armed conflict,” the verdict stated. “Combatants are obliged to adhere to the norms of this law and bear individual criminal responsibility for any war crimes committed.”
The court cited the 1949 Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, which prohibits murder, torture or inhuman treatment. Furthermore, the convention forbids any measures that could cause physical suffering or lead to the killing of civilians.
According to the verdict, which cited case materials, Amandusov is currently in the occupied territory of the Kherson region.
The prosecutor had requested a life sentence for the accused. Amandusov’s state-appointed defence attorney did not object to the in absentia proceedings and asked the court to deliver a fair verdict.
Amandusov’s term will commence from the date of his arrest. The verdict is not yet legally binding and can be appealed within 30 days of its announcement.
