War Crimes Trial for Ukrainian Serving with Russian Army
Serviceman staged mock execution as well as robbing and abusing villagers.
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War Crimes Trial for Ukrainian Serving with Russian Army
Serviceman staged mock execution as well as robbing and abusing villagers.
A 43-year-old Ukrainian citizen from the Donetsk region is on trial for alleged war crimes he committed while serving with Russian forces in the Sumy oblast following the full-scale invasion.
Mykhailo Bakhmanov is accused of conducting a mock execution as well as the robbery and intimidation of civilians during the occupation of a village in the Okhtyrka district in March 2022.
The Trostianets district court, which is hearing the case in absentia, was told how after entering Ukraine in late February 2022, Bakhmanov’s unit occupied a village in the Okhtyrka district for over three weeks.
For security reasons, the name of the village and the identities of the victims have been changed.
According to the court hearing, the events in question took place on March 19, during the final days of the village’s occupation. Approximately seven Russian soldiers entered the yard of local pensioners, Halyna and Stepan, who lived with their 15-year-old grandson Sashko.
The occupiers confiscated two mobile phones in an attempt, according to investigators, to determine the whereabouts of the couple’s son who was a soldier in the Ukrainian army. The case files state that Bakhmanov then pointed his weapon at Sashko and forced his grandmother to go with him.
The woman was taken to a pond where Bakhmanov conducted a mock execution, continuing to demand information about her son. Investigators note that the occupier fired his weapon in Halyna’s direction as she knelt by the water.
Journalists learned the details of that day from Sashko during a crime scene reconstruction, a video of which was reviewed by the court during a hearing on December 5.
In the video, the boy tells a policewoman that about five to seven men in uniform, with Russian flags on their clothing, entered the yard of the house and that they were looking for his uncle. The Russians confiscated his and his grandmother’s phones, then ransacked the shed, the attic and the house. They even looked into the well, into which one of the soldiers fired several shots.
Sashko demonstrated how the soldiers had their weapons slung over their shoulders, but that their guns were pointed at him during the threats and when they took his grandmother Halyna.
One of the Russian soldiers stayed behind with the boy and ordered him to dig a pit down the street from his house. A car then drove up and picked the soldier up. The teenager went home to wait for his grandmother. He recalls that when she was brought back, she was unable to speak.
Journalists were asked to not show the faces or reveal the names of the next two witnesses. Both were residents of the same village in the Okhtyrka district and had identified Bakhmanov from a photograph during the pre-trial investigation. They recalled that the occupier wore a military uniform with a Russian flag, yet spoke fluent Ukrainian.
To all the residents, he was known as Medved, and he introduced himself to one eyewitness as Misha. He called himself “one of our own”, saying he was from the east of Ukraine.
“I went outside because my dog started barking,” one witness told the court. “There were three men in military uniforms with automatic rifles and one of them wanted to kill the dog. I started to defend it. Then the senior one said he was taking my car and I didn’t resist – the odds were against me. The Russians couldn’t start the vehicle, so they only took it a few days later by towing it. The senior one, that was this Medved.”
Explaining why Bakhmanov was being tried as a Ukrainian citizen, the prosecutor told IWPR that although the suspect was likely to have a Russian passport, this could not be currently proven.
“These documents were issued illegally in the occupied Ukrainian territories,” the prosecutor explained. “If we were to legally recognise these passports as valid, Bakhmanov would be tried as a Russian citizen. As it stands, we only know that he is a member of the Russian Federation’s military.”
Bakhmanov’s state-appointed defence lawyer from the Legal Aid Centre attended the hearing remotely. If convicted, Bakhmanov faces eight to 12 years in prison under Part 1 of Article 438 of the criminal code of Ukraine. The trial continues.
