The National Police in Mykolaiv Oblast identified a 28-year-old Russian military mechanic from the 205th Motorized Infantry Brigade who is suspected of torturing civilians, the police said on April 8.
This comes as another suspected case of Russian troops' abuse of the Ukrainian population amid the full-scale invasion.
The Russian soldier is suspected of committing war crimes in the Shyroke community of the Bashtanka district in Mykolaiv Oblast, which was completely liberated by Ukrainian forces in November 2022.
In October 2022, the soldier imprisoned three citizens and tortured them, abusing them physically and psychologically, according to the police. The suspect imitated amputating the victims' fingers and kept the citizens in poor conditions in order to receive information about locals who opposed the Russian invasion.
The National Police charged the soldier in absentia over his abuse of civilians. The investigators are currently preparing documentation to place him on the international wanted list and to conduct a special procedure of the pre-trial investigation, which allows the passing of a sentence without the defendant's presence. The pre-trial investigation is ongoing.
Prosecutor General Andrii Kostin said in February that Ukraine had been investigating over 122,000 Russian war crimes since the beginning of the all-out war. Kostin added that Kyiv had identified 511 criminals and passed 80 sentences, mainly in absentia.
Earlier, the Kyiv City Prosecutor's Office identified a Russian deputy commander of the National Guard unit of Krasnoyarsk region who fired at a civilian in Kyiv Oblast while the victim was driving across the street.
The Kyiv Independent news desk
(Updated: )
