Exchanged Russian Sniper Convicted for Striking Civilian

Iryna Domashchenko

Kyiv-based IWPR's court reporter

Tuesday, 4 April, 2023

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A Russian intelligence sniper has been sentenced in absentia to 12 years in prison for striking a civilian and preparing to shoot him, in violation of the laws and customs of war. 

On March 27, the Kyiv-Svyatoshinsky district court in the Kyiv region issued the sentence against sergeant Chingis Dambaev in absentia. Captured in late March 2022, the 31-year-old was included in a prisoners’ swap in April 2022. He remains on the wanted list and his sentence will be counted from the day of his actual detention.

According to the investigation, on March 8, 2022 Dambaev was in the vicinity of the village of Buzova, about 70 kilometres west of Kyiv, by the highway connecting the capital to the north-western city of Zhytomyr.  Holding a Dragunov rifle, a drunken Russian soldier identified as Dambaev stopped a civilian car carrying a family of two adults and two children as part of an evacuation convoy. 

Dambaev ordered the man to get out of the car and strip to the waist. After noticing a green, skull-shaped tattoo on the man’s hand, Dambaev accused him of choosing a Nazi symbol and hit him on the head with his rifle butt. The sniper then took aim at the victim with the intention of shooting, but the case file stated that “the crime was not completed for reasons beyond his [the accused] control”. 

The court debate highlighted that Dambaev was in a state of “alcoholic intoxication”, which the prosecutor asked to be considered as an aggravating circumstance as he requested a sentence of 12 years in prison. 

Dambaev is a native of the village of Tsagan-Ola, in the Russian Federation’s far eastern region of Trans-Baikal. In an interview recorded after his capture, the sniper talked about his Buddist faith and said that he had been serving for three years in the 5th separate tank brigade of military unit 46108, stationed in Ulan-Ude, where he lived in a rented apartment.

“Everyone was scared. We had a little drink with the tankers,” Dambaev said, describing the circumstances of his capture in March 2022. He said that after drinking a beer and a bottle of wine, he wanted to join his brother, also a soldier. 

Instead, he got lost and found himself captured by Ukrainian servicemen. 

Dambaev said that his brigade was stationed in the area of Ivankiv, a village about 80 kilometers north of Kyiv, and approximately 70 kilometers south of the Belarusian border. 

“The commander ordered [us] to stop the cars going to Kyiv, and to shoot the wheels of those that don't." 

The order was also to shoot “saboteurs”. 

Dambaev recalled that he saw how three civilians were shot with a machine gun: they were placed with their backs to the side of the road. 

"When I went to clear the bodies [two of the three], I fired one shot out of fear. I saw all this for the first time in my life, and it scared me... and the command was to shoot. I grabbed his leg to lift him up, and he snorted, or how to say... I screamed and shot out of fear,” he said. He threw the two bodies over the ravine.

Dambaev's lawyer Viktor Payeta met Dambaev during the pre-trial investigation, while he was in captivity, and was present during his interrogation before the exchange. According to the court register, the captured officer was informed of the suspicion between April 11 and 13, 2022. The exchange presumably took place soon after the announcement of the suspicion, but Dambaev’s defence attorney did not disclose it to IWPR, citing legal confidentiality.

During the court debate preceding the sentence, defence lawyer Payeta noted that it was “difficult from a moral point of view to defend a case of this category” as there is “no justification for such a crime”. 

“I ask the honourable court to pay attention to the fact that Dambaev is a resident of the city of Ulan-Ude, Republic of Buryatia, Russian Federation. In this region, as my client explained at the stage of the pre-trial investigation during the interrogation as a suspect, which took place in my presence, it is impossible to find a job that would allow him to provide for his family,” the lawyer stated in court as she tried to explain the sniper’s behaviour. 

Due to financial constraints, Dambaev had signed a contract with the army to support his wife and his two minor daughters. Payeta asked the court to recognise as mitigating circumstances his family, the motive that brought him to join the army and the fact that Dambayev could not avoid executing the order.

Prosecutor Svitlana Lytvyn said that the court had sufficient evidence to prove that the Russian soldier violated  the laws and customs of war under Part 1 of Article 438 of the criminal code and issued the maximum length in prison foreseen by the code. 

The defence has 30 days to appeal.