KHARKIV OBLAST, UKRAINE, Apr 25 — Since the start of the full-scale invasion, Russia has committed 20,000 violations of the laws and customs of war in the Kharkiv Oblast, the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office reported in response to a request from Gwara Media.

According to the report, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the Prosecutor’s Office has registered 22,386 violations in Kharkiv Oblast. In 2022, 10,790 violations of laws and customs of war were documented, 10,522 in 2023, and 1,074 in the first three months of 2024.

Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which these violations fall under, includes cruel treatment of prisoners of war or civilians, forced displacement of civilians for forced labor, looting of national property in the occupied territory, use of means of warfare prohibited by international law, other violations of the laws and customs of war described in international treaties ratified by Ukrainian Parliament (Verkhovna Rada.) It also includes the same actions, combined with murder.

Those convicted under the Article 438 face a sentence from 8 to 15 years in prison to a life sentence.

On April 3, the court found guilty and sentenced a 40-year-old deputy commander of a tank battalion of the 6th Separate Tank Brigade of the Russian Armed Forces to 15 years in prison for the murder of a resident of Izium in the Kharkiv Oblast “for speaking Ukrainian.”  

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