Tuesday, 20 June ‘23

Suspicion Issued in Absentia to Russian Ultranationalist

Investigators of Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) issued a suspicion in absentia against Alexander Dugin, a Russian ultranationalist ideologue, for encroachment on the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine (Part 2 of Article 110 of the criminal code) and genocide (Part 2 of Article 442 of the criminal code). 

The investigation states that Dugin has been disseminating far-right views for over a decade, denying the existence of Ukraine as a sovereign state and calling on Russian authorities to militarily overtake its territory. The 60-year-old hardliner has openly promoted ideas about the physical destruction of Ukrainians, as well as the country’s civil infrastructure. 

Dugin’s daughter Daryna, who shared her father’s views on the invasion of Ukraine, was killed in a car bomb on the outskirts of Moscow in August 2022, in an attack that some observers maintain may have targeted her father.

Russian Official Notified of Suspicion for Ferrying Russian Troops to Ukraine

Ukrainian investigators reported in absentia Zakhariy Dzioev, Russia’s head of the Federal Agency for Sea and River Transport, of the suspicion of planning, preparing and waging an aggressive war, according to Part 5 of Article 27 and Part 2 of Article 437 of the criminal code. 

According to the investigation, Dzioev helped Russia’s ministry of defence to transfer Russian troops to the territory of Ukraine. On his orders, in August 2022, the Russian company Oboronlogistika organised ferry links between the territory of Krasnodar, on the Black Sea, to the occupied port city of Mariupol.

In October 2022, following the explosion on the Kerch bridge which connects the Crimean peninsula to Russia’s mainland, Dzhioev ordered the establishment of a ferry crossing to replace the transport connection. Investigators found that the ferry routes were used to transport equipment and ammunition as well as looted Ukrainian grain.

Russian Guards’ Commander Suspected of Shooting Ukrainian POW

SBU investigators issued a suspicion in absentia to Russian Guards’ commander Konstantin Yudin for shooting a captured Ukrainian soldier in violation of the laws and customs of war (Part 1 of Article 438 of the criminal code). 

According to the investigation, in early April 2022 Yudin, who heads Russian Guards’ 376th separate operational battalion, was in the occupied town of Energodar in the Zaporizhzhya region.  

The suspect shot a captured Ukrainian serviceman in the leg for speaking to him in Ukrainian. To intimidate other Ukrainian prisoners of war, Yudin demanded they communicate with him exclusively in Russian, threatening them to shoot them if they failed to do so.