Russian Commander to be Tried for Kidnapping Civilians
Accused man was identified by journalistic investigation into the so-called Don Cossack volunteer brigade.
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Tuesday, 14 May ‘24
This week’s overview of key events and links to essential reading.
Russian Commander to be Tried for Kidnapping Civilians
Accused man was identified by journalistic investigation into the so-called Don Cossack volunteer brigade.
A Russian commander has been indicted for ordering the kidnapping and torture of civilians in the occupied Kinburn Peninsula in the Black Sea.
Evgenii Deli is accused of violating the laws and customs of war (under Part 1 of Article 438 of the criminal code) soon after Russian forces occupied the peninsula, a strategic location stretching for 40 kilometres between the Mykolaiv and Kherson regions.
Previously a popular tourist destination, there are only four villages on the peninsula, which until the all-out invasion were home to about 1,000 people. Three – Pokrovka, Vasylivka and Pokrovske – fall under the Mykolaiv region’s administration and one, Heroyske, belongs to the Kherson region.
In March 2022, Russian troops moved from the Kherson region southward and occupied the peninsula, which allowed them to block the exits from both Kherson and Mykolaiv ports.
The territory is the only area of Mykolaiv region still under occupation: from here Russians regularly shell mainland Ukraine. In particular, Russians target the town of Ochakiv, with a population of 15,000, which is just eight kilometres is from the Kinburn Spit on the westernmost point of the peninsula.
In February 2023, Ukrainian journalists from the Schemes investigative project of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty analysed social network feeds and Russian propaganda articles and identified the leaders of the Russian so-called Don Cossack volunteer brigade that control the peninsula and the Kinburn Spit.
Soon after occupying the peninsula, the Russians started questioning all residents, searching their houses and arresting them. The reporters identified 27-year-old Deli, call sign Rus, as the commander of an artillery platoon on the Kinburn Spit. Before the invasion, the 26-year-old lived in Novosibirsk and worked in an auto shop. He completed his military service in 2018 and according to the chevron posted on his social networks, he served in the 10th special brigade of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces (GRU).
As of February 2023, about 300 people remained on the peninsula, the others having fled or been forcibly evacuated, including 37 residents of Pokrovka.
In February 2024, Deli was issued a suspicion in absentia. The document states that the accused is a native of the Siberian city of Kemerovo and at the time of the crimes led the artillery platoon of the Don Cossack Brigade, part of Russia’s armed forces.
On August 23, 2022 Deli and some of his subordinates reportedly came to the house of a local resident in the village of Vasylivka. Deli ordered his subordinates to arrest the man, who was not a soldier and did not take part in military operations. The Russians tied his hands, covered his face and head and then put him onto a KAMAZ truck.
He was transported to an unspecified pre-trial investigation location in the Kherson region, where he was held for at least six days. There soldiers beat him, extinguished lighters on his body and threatened to kill him unless he confessed that he had cooperated with the Ukrainian Forces.
He was then left partially undressed and without his documents or any money on a road near the city of Kherson, which was occupied at the time.
The second episode the Russian commander is accused of took place on September 2, 2022, when he and his subordinates arrived at the residence of a civilian woman in the village of Pokrovka. According to the investigation, Deli ordered her arrest, after which his subordinates handcuffed the woman and blindfolded her before putting her into a car.
She was taken to a private house in the same village, handcuffed to a chair and left overnight. In the morning, the victim was transported in the trunk of an SUV to the territory of the Kherson region, where she was kept without sufficient food or drink for seven days in an unidentified place. On September 9, she was left on the territory of the Kinburn Spit, about three kilometres from Pokrovka.
On March 20, 2024, Mykolaiv’s central district court gave permission for a special pre-trial investigation in the case. The court register indicates that the Russian is in Ukraine, in a territory occupied by Russia, but the file does not specify where. The investigation file includes protocols of interrogation of witnesses and victims and photo identification to substantiate the suspicion.
In April, the case was brought to the Ochakiv city district court of the Mykolaiv region. The Free Legal Aid Centre appointed a defence lawyer for Deli who is being summoned to court. If found guilty the Russian commander faces eight to twelve years in prison. The first court hearing is scheduled for ay 22.
