Two Russian soldiers have each been sentenced to more than 11 years in jail after a court in central Ukraine found them guilty of firing artillery at civilian areas.
The verdict after the trial in the Poltava region came one week after another court in the capital, Kyiv, gave a 21-year-old Russian soldier a life sentence – the country’s first judicial reckoning on Russia’s invasion.
The servicemen convicted on Tuesday, Alexander Bobikin and Alexander Ivanov, were handed sentences of 11 years and six months under legislation against “violating the laws and customs of war”.
They were found guilty of firing Grad missiles on two villages in the north-eastern Kharkiv region in the early days of the war. The Interfax news agency reported that both previously pleaded guilty.
It said their legal defence had requested a more lenient sentence, claiming the soldiers had been following orders and acting under duress.
The verdicts this month against Russian servicemen are expected to be the first in a wave of trials. Ukraine says it has already opened thousands of war crime investigations since the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, sent in his troops.
Rights organisations have voiced hope that Ukraine’s trials of Russian soldiers will be impartial and transparent.
After the conviction in Kyiv of 21-year-old Vadim Shishimarin, the Kremlin said it had not received any information about his case while his trial was under way.
Ukrainian lawyers representing the Russian servicemen say they have not been in contact with legal or military officials in Moscow.
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