Tuesday, 9 Jul ‘24
This week’s overview of key events and links to essential reading.
Tuesday, 9 Jul ‘24
This week’s overview of key events and links to essential reading.
Ukrainian Militant Accused of Rape in Kharkiv Region
Ukraine’s security service (SBU) reported a suspicion in absentia against Ukrainian citizen Maksim Lianchenko for raping a woman during the occupation of Kharkiv region in April 2022, in violation of the laws and customs of war (Part 1 of Article 438 of the criminal code). According to the investigation, in March 2022 the 29-year-old from Donetsk, who serves in the 115th regiment of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), was in the region of Kharkiv. In April, during the occupation of one of the communities living along the border with Russia, Lyanchenko broke into the home of a local resident and forced her to have sex.
He beat her nearly unconscious and threatened to shoot her if she told anyone. The investigation found that the suspect and his regiment left the Kharkiv region on the eve of the de-occupation of the community, which happened on June 30, 2022.
Over 4,000 Investigations of War Crimes Against Children
Ukraine’s law enforcement agencies are investigating more than 4,000 criminal proceedings of war crimes against children, Deputy Prosecutor General Viktoriya Litvinova said during the Humanitarian Forum held in Kyiv on July 2. Litvinova stated that “the main challenge is to ensure investigations in these proceedings today, during the war”.
The case load includes more than 1,320 incidents of murder and mutilation, 2,343 cases of damage to children's infrastructure (schools, kindergartens, hospitals, leisure facilities, sanatoriums), 53 cases of kidnapping and illegal deprivation of liberty, 15 of sexual violence and 82 of torture. In addition, law enforcement agencies are investigating over 19,000 cases of children illegally deported to Russia or Ukraine’s occupied territories.
17 Convicted Russian Soldiers Serving Sentences in Ukraine
There are 17 Russian soldiers convicted of war crimes currently serving their sentences in Ukraine, according to Yuriy Belousov, head of the war department of Ukraine’s Office of the Prosecutor General. The group includes Vadym Shishimarin, the first Russian soldier to be convicted, who killed a civilian in the Sumy region on February 28, 2022. The Solomyansky district court of Kyiv sentenced the 21-year-old to life imprisonment in May 2022 and in July of the same year the Kyiv court of appeals reduced the sentence to 15 years in prison. Belousov said that the issue of including Shishimarin in a prisoners’ swap had been "raised”, but that currently Ukraine was not considering exchanging him.
"I do not exclude the possibility that such exchanges [of such convicts] could potentially take place. But, according to general rules, we do not exchange those who have committed serious crimes, this is a principled position of the General Prosecutor's Office,” Belousov said.
He added that law enforcement officers are investigating cases of Ukrainian soldiers killed while in captivity, which, according to the prosecutor's office, involve over 110 Ukrainian soldiers.
“It’s really difficult to investigate, because we don't have access to the territory [where they are held], and sometimes also to the dead bodies. But technologies allow us to document as much as possible what happened without even having [direct] access,” he added.
