The court approved the request of the investigator of the National Police in Kharkiv region, agreed with the prosecutor of the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office, to conduct a special pre-trial investigation against the deputy commander of the battalion for weapons of the military unit 62892, a serviceman of the 245th Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment of the Russian Armed Forces, who is suspected of violating the laws and customs of war, combined with murder (Part 2 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

In early March 2022, the Russian Armed Forces occupied Izium, Kharkiv Oblast. Earlier, Russian soldiers were courting a 36-year-old woman in May 2022. The occupiers saw that the woman did not respond to their “compliments”, so they told stories about taking her to Russia for a “better life”.

On June 2, 2022, the woman went to the Russian military headquarters, the only place with Wi-Fi. She wanted to call her brother from Ivano-Frankivsk region.

A Russian soldier came out of the headquarters and looked at her jealously, even though he had a wife in Russia. However, that day, his jealousy went beyond all bounds: he shot the woman directly in the chest. The victim died from the shot.

  • The suspect was put on the wanted list;
  • The investigating judge of the Kyiv District Court of Kharkiv decided to conduct a special pre-trial investigation;

Background: Following the Art. 297-1 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine, a special pre-trial investigation is carried out based on a decision of the investigating judge in criminal proceedings regarding a crime committed by a suspect in respect of whom the authorized body decided to transfer him for exchange as a prisoner of war, and such an exchange took place.

A special pre-trial investigation regarding other crimes is not allowed, except when the crimes are committed by persons hiding from the investigation and court authorities in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine, in the territory of the state recognized by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine as the aggressor state, to evade criminal liability and/or are put on the international wanted list, and are investigated in the same criminal proceedings as the crimes referred to in this part, and the separation of materials on them may adversely affect the completeness of the investigation.

Read also

  • 23 torture chambers discovered in Kharkiv Oblast. The Russian invaders also organized mass graves of Ukrainian citizens to conceal the crimes. After the de-occupation process, the bodies of 679 people were exhumed in the region, 451 in Izium and 105 in other districts of Kharkiv region.
  • Russian pilot sentenced to 12 years imprisonment for bombing Kharkiv. A Su-34 pilot of the Russian Armed Forces who carried out air strikes on civilian infrastructure was found guilty of violating the laws and customs of war.
  • Threatened to shoot if victims don’t give money: three Russian soldiers to be judged. According to the investigation, in May 2022, during the occupation of Izium in Kharkiv Oblast, three soldiers of the 39th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade belonging to the 68th Army Corps of the Eastern Military District, stopped a car with two civilians.