Ukraine hands Russian war criminal to Lithuania in historic first
Photo: Prosecutor General of Ukraine Ruslan Kravchenko (facebook com RuslanKravchenkoKyiv)
For the first time since the start of the full-scale invasion, Ukraine has transferred a Russian serviceman to another country for actual criminal prosecution for war crimes, according to Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko.
“This is a historic and important precedent for the entire system of international justice. On October 30, the Vilnius District Court, at the request of a prosecutor from the Lithuanian Prosecutor General’s Office, took the suspect into custody for three months,” the prosecutor general said.
According to Kravchenko, the case concerns a senior sailor of the Russian Armed Forces’ military police, who was captured by Ukrainian troops in the Zaporizhzhia direction near Robotyne.
“According to our data, he was involved in the illegal detention, torture, and inhuman treatment of civilians and prisoners of war. Beatings, electric shocks, suffocation, keeping people in metal safes, and other horrors that are hard to even imagine — all this he carried out together with other soldiers of his unit,” he added.
As the prosecutor general explained, one of his victims was a citizen of Lithuania. Because of this, he has been charged in Lithuania under articles of the Criminal Code for war crimes, torture, unlawful imprisonment, and violations of the Geneva Conventions.
“For what he has done, he may spend the rest of his life in prison. I want to note that this became possible thanks to the effective work of the Joint Investigation Team for Ukraine and the partnership with Lithuanian colleagues. This is not just a legal action. It is a clear signal to every war criminal: you will not be able to hide from responsibility in any country of the free world. Justice will prevail,” he emphasized.
Kravchenko added that he had constructive discussions about this with the President of the Republic of Lithuania Gitanas Nausėda and Lithuania’s Prosecutor General Nida Grunskienė.
Earlier today, the Office of the Prosecutor General identified the Russian national responsible for the murders of 17 civilians in Bucha.
The Russian commander involved in the killings of Bucha civilians has been notified of suspicion.
It was established that he issued orders, personally took part in the crimes, and supervised the actions of his subordinates, resulting in the deaths of at least 17 civilians.
