Kommersant, a state-controlled Russian news outlet, reported on November 8 that a Russian military court had sentenced two soldiers to a life sentence for the murder of ten members of occupied Donetsk oblast. The Donetsk Oblast Prosecutor’s Office announced on October 30 that Russian forces had entered a Volnovakha home and killed nine civilians including two children aged 5 and 9. The victims were identified by the Donetsk Oblast Prosecutor’s Office as the Kapkanets Family, who were celebrating a birthday. The Southern District Military Court of Rostov-on Don handed down life sentences for both soldiers, Anton Sopov and Stanislav Rau. This is a rare case where Russian authorities hold their own troops accountable for crimes committed in Ukraine. The trial was secret because of military secrecy. Both men pleaded innocent, according to Kommersant. Sopov and Rau, who were both arrested in Russia the day after Ukraine’s report on the killings was released, were detained by the Russian Investigative Committee. The Russian Investigative Committee identified both soldiers as contract staff from Russia’s Far East. According to the Ukrainian investigation, the family’s murder occurred after they refused to leave their home after Sopov and Rau threatened them. The Russian soldiers approached the Kapkanets’ home several days prior to the murders, and demanded the family leave in order for them to live there. The residents refused, and the soldiers left. They returned on October 27, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, and shot nine members of the Kapkanets family while they were sleeping. Russia has denied that its forces have committed crimes in Ukraine. Ukraine has accused Russian forces 137,000 war crimes as part of their full-scale invasion. Crimes include mass abductions of Ukrainian children, torture of residents of occupied territories and murder of civilians. [embedded content]
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