Tuesday, 29 August ‘23

Investigation Launched Into Chernihiv Rocket Attack

The Security Service of Ukraine launched a  pre-trial investigation into the case of violation of the laws and customs of war, combined with intentional murder (Part 2 of Article 438 of the criminal code of Ukraine) following a rocket attack on the centre of Chernihiv on August 19 that killed seven people. 

A further 181 people were injured, with over 60 residential and administrative buildings partially destroyed. It was preliminarily established that the Russian army used the Iskander missile complex against civilian targets, but court hearings scheduled for August 21-25 were postponed due to significant damage to the building of the Chernihiv court of appeal.

Suspicions Issued Over Shooting of Civilian Car

Ukrainian investigators informed five Russian paratroopers in absentia of the suspicion under Part 2 of Art. 438 of the criminal code of Ukraine concerning the violations of the laws and customs of war, combined with intentional murder. 

Senior lieutenant Mykola Simov and his subordinates -  sergeant and deputy platoon commander Ilya Astakhov, sergeant Andriy Dvoretsky, corporal Ruslan Kharitonov and private rifleman Oleg Bakhmisov - are all  from the 98th Airborne Division of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

According to the investigation, at the beginning of March 2022, Simov ordered his subordinates to shoot at a car travelling on the highway in the Buchansky district of the Kyiv region. The 33-year-old driver, from Kyiv, was delivering essential supplies to friends under occupation and died on the spot from automatic weapon fire. The Russian soldiers buried him in the forest.

The Ukrainian security services reported that it was checking information that Simov had possibly died in the war, although his death will not be a reason to stop the investigation of the criminal proceedings in which other participants appear.

Torture and Murder in Kherson

Kherson investigators informed in absentia Viktor Bedryk, deputy commander of the 22nd Army Corps of the Coastal Forces of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Navy,  and his subordinate Oleksandr Chychkan of suspicions against them. 

According to the investigation, in April 2022, during the occupation of Kherson, Bedryk was appointed commandant of the occupation military commandant's office of the Kherson region”. He had at least 25 subordinates, including Chychkan. On Bedryk’s orders, civilians were detained and taken to a torture chamber in the basement of the captured Kherson court of appeal. There they were kept in poor conditions with proper food or water and tortured in an attempt to obtain information. Chichkan supervised, interrogated and tortured the detainees. The investigators established that at least 12 civilians were harmed by the actions of the suspects in May-July 2022. Two people were tortured to death.

Bedryk is suspected of issuing an order for brutal treatment of civilians and violations of the laws and customs of war, combined with intentional murder by a group of persons (Part 2 of Article 28 and Part 1, Part 2 of Article 438 of the criminal code of Ukraine). Chychkan's actions were classified as cruel treatment of the civilian population and other violations of the laws and customs of war by a group of persons in a prior conspiracy (Part 2 of Article 28, Part 1 of Article 438 of the criminal code of Ukraine).