Two Russian Soldiers To be Tried for Murdering Ukrainian Volunteer
Victim had been returning from distributing food when he was killed and his body thrown into a sewer well.
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Tuesday, 4 June ‘24
This week’s overview of key events and links to essential reading.
A Russian corporal is to face trial for killing a Ukrainian volunteer during the occupation of Kyiv region in March 2022. The victim’s body was then hidden in a sewer, where it lay for nearly six months.
According to the investigation, Sayan Ilyarov and his accomplice, identified as 26-year-old private Linchobo Naidanov, were on duty at a checkpoint in the village of Berezivka near the town of Bucha, about 40 kilometres from Kyiv. Both servicemen are from Russia’s Republic of Buryatia, in eastern Siberia, and belong to the 5th separate tank brigade of military unit No 46108. They are stationed in the republic’s capital Ulan-Ude.
On March 2, 2022, the two reportedly shot and killed Vasyl Avdeev, a resident of Berezivka, while he was driving a white Peugeot 308. An entrepreneur who sold timber, the 47-year-old was a volunteer and was returning from distributing food. At about 5pm, his car was reportedly shot 21 times with a sniper rifle.
Avdeev was wounded, but survived. The Russian soldiers pulled him out of the car, put a tourniquet on his leg and tried to interrogate the man who, due to the injury, was unable to answer their questions. The investigation stated that Naidanov then hit the victim with the butt of a machine gun and Ilyarov shot him in the head. Afterwards, the soldiers took the body half a kilometre away from the murder scene and hid it in a sewer well near a gas station along the Kyiv-Zhytomyr road.
The Russian soldiers then searched the white Peugeot, taking various items including Avdeev’s mobile phone. Police officers stated that they also checked his documents, which were in his pockets, so they were aware of the man’s identity. After the murder and the disposal of the body, Ilyarov and Naidanov went around Berezivka, checking residents’ documents. They came across a family with the same surname and told them about Avdeev’s death.
“We did not believe what they said. I went to look for him,” the victim’s wife Tetyana Avdeeva said in a video released by the Ukrainian police.
In the film, Avdeeva related how on March 2, 2022, around the time of her husband's murder, she heard gunshots near their home.
“I heard them [Russian soldiers] shooting, laughing. It turned out later that they were having fun shooting my husband's car,” she told the police.
At dawn the next day, March 3, his wife found her husband's empty and damaged car. The family subsequently searched for the body for nearly five months.
“As much as we searched, we hoped that we would find it. I didn't want to believe it... But I'm still waiting for him. His phone appeared online three times. I called him constantly,” the woman said. She added that she had still not deleted her husband's phone number.
The police found Avdeev’s body in August 2022. His wife stated that heavy rains pushed the corpse to the top of the well.
According to investigators, Ilyarov kept Avdeev’s cell phone, which helped them to identify the Russian soldier.
The corporal was charged in absentia in March 2023. In June 2023, the Slidstvo.info media outlet reported that its reporters had found Ilyarov’s number, called him and asked him about the crimes which he is now accused of committing in the Kyiv region.
“During the conversation, the Russian occupier denied his involvement in the murder and behaved defiantly. ‘Who are you, where did you get my number? What kind of nonsense is this, it's not me [who killed Avdeev]... Who will judge me?”
"Ukrainian law enforcement officers", said the journalist.
“But they went to hell!” he responded.
In June 2023 Ilyarov's case was referred to the Makariv district court in Kyiv region. The court however employs two judges and three are required to form a panel to consider this case. In October 2023, the Kyiv court of appeal transferred Ilyarov's case to the Irpinsky court, where the preparatory stage began with summoning the accused to court.
His alleged accomplice, Naidanov, was issued a suspicion in absentia in November 2023 and, according to the Judicial Authority’s portal, his case was received by the Kyiv-Svyatoshinsky district court in In March 2024. The two cases are currently being considered separately and the next hearings are scheduled for July 3, 2024.
The two are being tried for violating the laws and customs of war under Part 2 of Article 28 and Part 2 of Article 438 of the criminal code. If found guilty they face from ten to 15 years in prison or life imprisonment.
