Tuesday, 18 June ‘24

Russian Commander Sentenced in Absentia for “Hunting for Girls” 

On May 30, the Ivankiv district court of Kyiv Region sentenced Russian commander Magomed Isayev in absentia to 12 years imprisonment for the brutal treatment of the civilian population in conspiracy with a group of persons (Part 2 of Article 28 and Part 1 of Article 438 of the criminal code) during the occupation of the village of Zhmiivka in the Kyiv region in spring 2022. According to the investigation, on March 16, 2022 44-year-old Isayev came to the house of a girl with the intention of raping her.  As he did not find her, he grabbed the mother, pushed her, asked where her daughter was and shot at her. Isayev was also accused of occupying residents’ apartments and driving them out at gunpoint, together with his accomplices. 

In court, witnesses recognised Isayev from a photo and confirmed the findings of the investigation. The victim said that her younger daughter, then 20 years old, was hiding from the military after the Russian serviceman had noticed her. On the day Isaev came to her house, her husband had managed to take their two daughters, the older of whom was pregnant, outside the village. Another victim, the owner of the apartment, recalled how the accused and his comrades came to his house and ordered them at gunpoint to leave their house.  

The defence attorney has 30 days to appeal the verdict. 

Citizen Issued Suspicion for Torture of Ukrainian POWs 

Ukraine’s security service (SBU) issued a suspicion in absentia against Ukrainian citizen Volodymyr Rudyak on charges of cruel treatment of prisoners of war as per Part 1 of Article 438 of the criminal code. According to the investigation, in 2022 62-year-old Rudyak was the head of the Sukhodil correctional colony in the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) where about 50 Ukrainian PoWs were taken in April 2022. 

On Rudyak’s alleged orders, his subordinates beat prisoners with special batons on the back, neck and hands until they lost consciousness and also subjected them to simulated executions.  

Russian Armed Drone Operator Identified 

The SBU in Kherson issued a suspicion in absentia to Russian corporal Stepan Suminin for operating an armed drone and dropping explosives on two civilians, in violation of the laws and customs of war (Part 1 of Article 438 of the criminal code).  

According to the investigation, in May 2023 the 21-year-old soldier from Russia’s Krasnodar region operated a quadcopter, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with four rotors, and dropped explosives on locations where Ukraine’s armed forces were deemed to be. He received images of the locations in real time. On May 12, 2023, Suminin was in the occupied territory of Kakhovska, in Kherson region: investigators found that he remotely controlled the drone and identified two civilians, a man and a woman, as targets. The two were walking along the street of Odradokamyanka, a village in Beryslav district, on the de-occupied right bank of the Kherson region. The explosive seriously injured the 53-year-old woman.