Russian Captain to be Tried for Detention and Torture
Civilians were illegally detained and brutally treated during the occupation of strategic town.
A Russian commander has been indicted for ordering and participating in the March 2022 illegal detention and torture of local residents during the occupation of a town in the Mykolaiv region.
Anton Kabaev, 33, was among Russian troops that took control of Snihurivka on March 19, 2022.
Located on the banks of the Ingulets river, the town of about 12,000 people had a strategic position that enabled the Russians to control roads leading to Mykolaiv, Kherson, Kakhovka and Kryvyi Rih.
Ivan Kukhta, head of the Snihurivka military administration, told news outlet Suspilne that the Russian military were able to then block the liberation of Kerson.
"Snihurivka is a military bridgehead,” he told the site. “From history textbooks, we remember the Berezneguvato-Snihuriv operation during the Second World War; it was a logistical bridgehead for the fascists. [It] is also a railway hub, that is why they [occupation troops] kept Snihurivka. And they held Kherson as long as they were able to hold Snihurivka.”
The Ukrainian forces regained control of the town eight months later, on November 10, 2022. During the occupation residents were left without water, electricity, gas and stable mobile communication; they told journalists the Russian military robbed and interrogated locals as well as searching for Ukrainian soldiers.
The suspicion in absentia against Kabaev, originally from Russia’s Altai region, was issued in February 2024. According to the case files, the Russian captain implemented so-called filtration measures and searches in Snihurivka from the very first days of the occupation. Kabaev, call sign Siberia, headed the 2nd “special purpose group” of the Russian Guards’ 23rd Obereg special forces unit, which is stationed in the Ural city of Chelyabinsk.
According to the investigation, on March 20, Kabaev and his subordinates came to a local house in the town where he ordered the detention of four civilians, three men and a young woman. The men were beaten, tortured, stripped and searched for tattoos linking them to the Ukrainian forces. The Russian military questioned them about weapons and locations of Ukrainian soldiers and members of the territorial defence units.
One victim was first beaten in the living room and then moved to the bedroom; his mouth was covered with socks to prevent him from screaming. In the bedroom, Russian soldiers put him on the bed, face down, and tied his hands and feet behind him with belts found in the room. The victim was turned with his face and part of his body to the edge of the bed - so that half of his body was on the bed, and the other half of his body in tension above the floor. The suspicion states that the victim was left in this position, stripped to his underwear, for some time during which he was questioned about the positions of Ukrainian troops and weapons and his relation with the armed forces.
The second man was beaten and tortured in the kitchen, the third in the garage.
According to the investigation, Kabaev personally took part in the torture, and shot close to the head of one of the detainees at least twice; he simulated shooting and put a knife to the throat of another victim, saying that he had shot his friend in the other room.
While the men were being tortured, the detained woman was ordered to sit on a bench in the yard at gunpoint and was forbidden to move, turn her head or speak. She heard gunshots coming from the house and garage and thought the men – one of whom was her husband - had been killed.
As the Russian soldiers did not receive answers to their questions, they brought the victims to the courtyard, then to a local cafe in the centre of the village. They were released the same day.
Kabaev, who is thought to be in the occupied territory of Ukraine, was identified in January 2024. In February investigators issued the suspicion in absentia and on March 19 the central district court of Mykolaiv gave permission for a special pre-trial investigation. In April, this case was brought to court.
The Snihurivka district court scheduled the first hearing in this case for May 9. According to Ukrainian criminal law, if Kabaev does not appear at the preliminary hearing three times, the prosecutor can request to consider the case in the absence of the accused.
If found guilty of violating the laws and customs of war under Part 1 of Article 438 of the criminal code, the Russian captain faces eight to twelve years in prison.
