The Crimean garrison court has sentenced contract serviceman Alexey Usenko, who fought in Ukraine, to 10 years in prison, Russian newspaper Kommersant reports. He was found guilty of murdering an officer of the Russian National Guard, having mistaken him for a “Ukrainian saboteur”.
He was charged with voluntary manslaughter and threat of murder or grievous bodily harm.
The investigators claimed that Usenko had stopped a car with two members of the National Guard inside, pointed his AKS-74U assault rifle at them, and demanded that they step out onto the road. When the car’s driver introduced himself and showed his ID, Usenko allegedly shot the other soldier in the stomach, killing him. He then pushed the other man to the ground and threatened to kill him, the investigators asserted.
Other servicemen ran to the scene and persuaded Usenko to surrender his weapon. They described Usenko as inebriated, said he had been drinking cognac shortly before the altercation, and was behaving aggressively, boasting that he had detained “Ukrainian saboteurs”.
Usenko insisted he was not guilty, claiming that it was saboteurs or other Russian servicemen who could have opened fire. He said that the investigation took the car driver’s word for when asserting Usenko’s guilt, whereas the man could have made a mistake since it was dark at the time of the incident.
According to Kommersant’s sources, the bullet was never found and there were no traces of gunpowder on Usenko’s hands. The investigation also did not determine the degree of his alcohol intoxication.