Kharkiv “Mock Execution” Trial Adjourned

Russian serviceman accused of carrying out abuses during 2022 occupation.

A Kharkiv court has adjourned the war crimes trial of a Russian soldier due to a procedural error that meant the summons against him had not been published.

Ainur Shafikov, a 28-year-old native of Bashkortostan, is accused of committing war crimes in the Kupiansk district during its occupation in 2022, under Part 2 of Article 28 and Part 1 of Article 438 of the criminal code of Ukraine concerning violations of the laws and customs of war.

On September 15, the Industrialnyi District Court of Kharkiv convened to continue questioning witnesses in his case. Attendees at the hearing included one of the survivors as well as prosecutor Ivan Suk. The defendant’s attorney, Serhii Yarmak, joined by video conference.

However, the hearing did not take place. Presiding Judge Serhii Shevchenko and the court clerk announced that this was due to a lack of official confirmation from the State Judicial Administration of Ukraine that a summons for Shafikov had been published. No public notice of the hearing had been posted in the Uriadovyi Kurier newspaper or on the district court’s website.

The judge explained that under Ukrainian law, for a trial to be held in absentia, the defendant must be notified of the hearing’s time and place through the Uriadovyi Kurier newspaper and the court’s website. The court must now re-apply to the judicial administration to publish these notices, and only then will a date for the next session be set.

“Since this is a special judicial proceeding, procedural law requires a specific form of public notification of the time and venue for the hearing,” Shevchenko said. “The court has not yet issued such a notice. The court is postponing the hearing and will resend the notice to the territorial administration of the State Judicial Administration in the Kharkiv Region for publication in the appropriate media.”

As a result, the hearing was postponed, even though all parties to the case were present.

Illegal Search

The incident occurred in the village of Shevchenkove in the Kupiansk district in April 2022. One of the victims, Serhii Bunin, who was present at the hearing, reported that after he came home for lunch, a jeep parked by his yard and four armed, masked men got out. They were Russian soldiers. They announced they were there to conduct a search for his daughter-in-law’s service weapon as she was a police officer with the Kupiansk district department.

When the men began the search, which lasted about 30 minutes, they removed their masks. Bunin said that although the Russians ransacked his home, turning over all his personal belongings, they ultimately found nothing.

The survivor said that Shafikov threatened him with reprisal and struck him once with a rifle butt.

“I got a clear look at their faces and my security cameras were running – they didn't know about them,” he said. “I have given the footage from the cameras to the Security Service of Ukraine.”

A few days later, the Russians returned, this time with a metal detector, and searched the yard. However, they once again found nothing.

The second incident Shafikov is charged with involved a resident of the Kupiansk district, Hryhorii Zh, and his family.

State prosecutor Suk told a correspondent for the Dumka news outlet that Shafikov, along with other Russian servicemen, “conducted raids” in the Kupiansk district during its occupation.

“They would drive to civilian residential areas and carry out illegal activities there, which are prohibited by international law: they would come to seek personal gain, intimidate, obtain material goods or simply physically terrorise people,” the prosecutor noted. “They would arrive, conduct raids and illegal searches, and exert psychological and physical pressure on people. Essentially, it was a form of racketeering tied to the military conflict.”

Investigators say that around the time of Easter in April 2022, the survivor was returning home by car near Shevchenkove with his wife and three-year-old daughter.

“At the checkpoint, one of the servicemen approached them,” the prosecutor said. “This was not Shafikov, the accused in the case. It was a person who was in Shafikov’s group, because he did not commit these crimes alone. We have not identified this serviceman. As the civilians were crossing the checkpoint, he saw the young child of Hryhorii Zh.

“According to the survivor, this serviceman said he liked the child. He apparently has a son. ‘Let me take your daughter, I'll bring her to Russia and she and my son will be great friends,’” the Russian serviceman said. The survivor perceived this as a genuine threat. After he refused to hand over his daughter, the serviceman decided to try bargaining instead of using pressure and offered a sum of money – the survivor doesn’t specify how much, but it was a significant amount in Russian roubles. Of course, the survivor rejected this offer as well.

“The Russian likely took this as a personal insult, which prompted Russian soldiers to later show up at the home of Hryhorii Zh,” the prosecutor continued. Their visit ended with the soldiers taking Hryhorii Zh outside to a building across the street, where Shafikov personally staged a mock execution, by racking the slide of his weapon.

“They came to the survivor’s home to show they were in power. They may have wanted to kidnap his daughter. We don’t know that for sure, it hasn’t been established. The scenario is almost always the same: in the occupied territories, the occupiers commit the same acts. They go to civilians’ homes to intimidate them, conduct searches and look for weapons, money and other valuables. So, they came to his home with that purpose and also to show the man he was in the wrong. Perhaps, they were looking for the daughter, but she wasn’t home at the time.”

He added, “This criminal case is heard based on this act of inhuman treatment and the mock execution.”

According to the prosecutor, Shafikov’s current whereabouts are unknown.

“For now, we have no information as to whether he is alive or not,” he noted. “As prosecutors, we only receive such information from official sources. It is unlikely that the state of Ukraine will receive official confirmation of Shafikov’s death, whether in combat or by natural causes, because the only proof would be an official record of death.”

Suk added that the investigation into Shafikov’s unidentified accomplices is ongoing.

The survivor testimony phase of the trial has now concluded, and it will now proceed to the questioning of witnesses. The court will then examine written evidence from both the prosecution and the defence before moving to closing arguments and the delivery of the verdict.