The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) charged Russian Colonel-General Yevgeny Nikiforov in absentia for ordering a missile strike on a Chernihiv theater that killed seven people and wounded 200 in August 2023, the SBU announced on Nov. 30.
The SBU charged Nikiforov, the commander of the “West” grouping of troops in the Russian Armed Forces, with "violation of the laws and customs of war, combined with premeditated murder."
Nearly 143,000 war crimes allegedly committed by Russian forces since 2022, including strikes against civilian infrastructure and killing of civilians, are currently under investigation in Ukraine. While Ukrainian authorities are pushing for an international tribunal, bringing alleged Russian war criminals to trial for these crimes remains almost impossible during the ongoing war.
Nikiforov ordered the missile strike on the Taras Shevchenko Chernihiv Regional Academic Music and Drama Theater that took place on Aug. 19, 2023, according to the SBU. Russian forces launched an Iskander-M cruise missile from Kursk Oblast in Russia.
Seven people were killed, including a six-year-old child, and over 200 wounded. The large number of casualties is due to the theater's location in the city center and the timing of the attack which occurred in the daytime on a weekend.
The explosion from the strike also damaged apartment buildings, administrative buildings, and cars.
As of November 2024, Ukraine had charged 730 people and convicted 137 for committing war crimes in Ukraine, according to the Prosecutor General's Office.
Daria Shulzhenko
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