Two Russian soldiers were sentenced to life imprisonment in Russia for the murder of an entire family of nine people, including two children, in an occupied Ukrainian city last year, TASS reported, quoted by BTA.
According to the prosecutor's office, cited by AFP, on October 28, 2023, in the partially occupied Ukrainian Donetsk region, in the town of Volnovakha, Anton Sopov and Stanislav Rau, armed with submachine guns with silencers, killed the Kapkanets family, including two children aged nine and four .
They were sentenced yesterday by a military court in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don for the murders, TASS reported, without giving details.
The murder of the Kapkanets family caused great outrage in Ukraine.
“The occupiers killed the Kapkanets family, who were celebrating their birthday and refused to leave their home,” said Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets.
Russian forces captured Volnovakha in the first days after the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. This was after intense bombing that destroyed much of the city.
The verdict is a rare example of recognition by the Russian institutions of crimes committed by Russian soldiers in the occupied territories, as accused by Ukraine, the West and international organizations, according to AFP.
The Russian prosecutor's office requested a six-year prison sentence for a pediatrician accused by the mother of one of her patients of criticizing the Russian invasion of Ukraine in a private conversation, France Press reported, quoted by BTA. br />
Sixty-eight-year-old doctor Nadezhda Buyanova declared to a Moscow court that she is innocent.
The prosecutor asked the judge to “find Buyanova guilty and sentence her to six years of imprisonment in a penal colony”.
Detained since April, the doctor arrived handcuffed to the glass-enclosed booth in the courthouse reserved for the accused.
She was supported by about a dozen people in the hall.
“I plead not guilty, I am innocent,” she said through the glass of the booth and broke down in tears before the start of the hearing after her handcuffs were removed.
The case illustrates the merciless crackdown on real or perceived critics of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, as well as opponents of Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to AFP.
The agency notes that arrests on charges of espionage, treason, sabotage, extremism or simply criticizing the military are on the rise, and the accused, who are often the victims of whistleblowers, may receive very harsh sentences.
For Nadezhda Buyanova, the troubles began in January, when the partner of a soldier killed on the front, 34-year-old Anastasia Akinchina, reported her to the police.
The mother of a seven-year-old boy treated by Buyanova accuses the doctor of telling her that her husband, who disappeared in Ukraine, “was a legitimate target” about the Ukrainian armed forces and that “Russia is an aggressor and attacks Ukrainian civilians”.
After being fired, Nadezhda Buyanova was detained at the end of April and accused of “spreading disinformation” about the Russian army, which is allegedly motivated by “ethnic hatred”.
She must also face the testimony of her former 7-year-old patient, described by the defense as a “key witness”.
The pediatrician's attorneys say the child was not present during the conversation between the two women, and point out that there is no recording of the conversation.
The doctor's colleagues initiated an online petition in her support, which has so far collected more than 6,000 signatures.
Her dismissal was overturned in July by a Moscow court, but this does not affect the criminal proceedings, according to AFP.