A Ukrainian court sentenced two captured Russian soldiers to 11 and a half years in prison on Tuesday for bombing a town in eastern Ukraine, the second war crimes verdict since the Russian invasion began.
Alexander Bobikin and Alexander Ivanov, who heard the verdict in a reinforced glass box at the Kotelevska district court in central Ukraine, pleaded guilty last week.
“Bobikin and Ivanov’s guilt has been fully proven,” Judge Evhen Bolybok said in the ruling.
Both acknowledged last week that they were part of an artillery unit that fired on targets in the Kharkiv region of eastern Ukraine from Belgorod, Russia.
The bombing destroyed an educational facility in the city of Derhachi but left no casualties, prosecutors said.
Bobikin and Ivanov, described as an artillery driver and military gunner, were captured after crossing the border and continuing the bombardment.
Prosecutors asked the court to jail the Russian military for 12 years, while the defense asked for leniency, saying the two soldiers only followed orders and regretted it.
Source: CNN Brasil
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