The first criminal case opened against a Ukrainian service member on the charge of violence against a civilian person will be heard by a Russian court, the Southern Military District Court told TASS.
Anton Cherednyk is accused of forceful seizure of power and violent treatment of civilians. He is also indicted for murder and terrorism training. This is the first criminal case of this kind for Russia, the court noted.
According to the Russian Investigative Committee, on 27 March Cherednyk stopped two men in a Mariupol neighbourhood and ordered them to lie on the ground face down. The investigation team claims that the men showed him their documents but the service member demanded that the men say a phrase in Ukrainian, firing a weapon into the air to intimidate them. Ultimately, Cherednyk shot one of the men dead, saying that his wrong pronunciation was to blame, the Investigative Committee claims.
In late July, the Kyiv Court of Appeal mitigated the sentence of Russian service member Vadim Shishimarin who became the first Russian military personnel to be prosecuted for war crimes in Ukraine. Shishimarin initially received a life sentence but will now serve 15 years behind bars.
