A Russian court sentenced two Russian soldiers for the murder of a family of nine people in occupied Ukraine to life imprisonment. This is a rare instance of a country holding its troops accountable for alleged crimes.
Prosecutors said that Stanislav Rau and Anton Sopov, both aged 21 and 28, killed the entire Kapkanets Family in their Donetsk home last year. Two children, aged five and nine, were among the victims.
Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s Ombudsman, said the family was celebrating a birthday when the killings occurred.
Russian media reported that some details of the case were unclear, including whether the soldiers pleaded guilt, because the trial was conducted behind closed doors, due to military secret.
Sopov and Rau have been convicted of the murder of 53-year old Eduard Kapkanets and his wife Tatiana. They also killed their adult sons and their wives, as well as a nine-year old granddaughter, four-year old grandson, and a distant relative.
Ukrainian officials at the moment said they believed that the family was murdered because they refused to give up their home to the Russian troops.
The state news agency Tass reported the men were convicted of murder “motivated from political, ideological hatred, racial or national hatred, or religious hate”.
Volnovakha, a Ukrainian city, was captured by Russian troops just a few weeks after the full-scale invasion began in Ukraine in February 2022. The town is mostly destroyed.
Russia denies any allegations of war crimes committed in Ukraine despite the fact that there is ample evidence to support this.
This includes the bombing in March 2022 of a theatre that had been housing hundreds of people and the killing of many hundreds in Bucha.
Russian forces are accused of running a torture chamber network in occupied Ukraine where civilians and prisoners are tortured, and sometimes killed.
The UN has accused Russian forces of rapes, “widespread”, torture and killings in Ukraine. The International Criminal Court issued a warrant to arrest Vladimir Putin.
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