Russia punished soldiers who killed Ukrainian family

A court in Russia sentenced two Russian soldiers to life imprisonment for killing a family of nine in occupied Ukraine after breaking into their home; this is a rare legal case against atrocities committed by Moscow soldiers in the war.

Anton Sopov and Stanislav Rau, two contract soldiers from Russia’s Far East, were convicted on Friday of using weapons equipped with silencers to kill the family out of “political, ideological, racial, national or religious hatred,” Russian state news agencies reported. The killings occurred in October 2023 in the Ukrainian town of Volnovakha, a logistics hub in southeastern Ukraine that Moscow forces occupied shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion began more than 2 1/2 years ago.

The case was heard behind closed doors at a southern military court in Rostov-on-Don, Russia. Sopov, 21, and Rau, 28, have pleaded not guilty and plan to appeal the verdict, according to Russian business newspaper Kommersant. Until now during the war, people sentenced to such life sentences were not allowed to escape imprisonment in high-security penal colonies by signing another contract to fight with the Russian army in Ukraine.

Since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Ukrainian officials, prosecutors and human rights groups have repeatedly accused Russian forces of atrocities against civilians, including torture, rape and execution.

Russian authorities have denied such accusations, despite documented evidence and testimonies collected by Ukrainian and international investigators. Moscow also accused Kiev of fabricating evidence to denigrate Russian forces.

But the murders of nine family members caused turmoil in Ukraine and beyond as photos of the bodies spread quickly on social networks, putting Russia under intense public pressure and prompting Russian investigators to open a criminal investigation.

The victims were a married couple: Eduard Kapkanets (53) and Tatiana Kapkanets (51); Their 31-year-old son Andrei and his wife Natalia; also his other son Aleksandr, 25, his wife Yekaterina, 27, their 9-year-old daughter Anastasia and their 4-year-old son Nikita; According to Kommersant, Yekaterina’s 20-year-old brother Dmitri.

This article was first published on: New York Times.