Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko announced that for the first time since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion, Ukraine has handed over a Russian serviceman to a foreign state for actual criminal prosecution for war crimes. This is reported by UNN.
A historic event for justice. For the first time since the beginning of the full-scale aggression, Ukraine has handed over a Russian serviceman to a foreign state – Lithuania – for actual criminal prosecution for war crimes. This is a historic and important precedent for the entire system of international justice.
Kravchenko reported that on October 30, the Vilnius District Court, at the request of the prosecutor of the Prosecutor General's Office of Lithuania, remanded the suspect in custody for three months.
This refers to a senior sailor of the military police of the Russian Armed Forces, who was captured by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Zaporizhzhia direction near Robotyne.
According to the Ukrainian prosecutor's office, he was involved in the illegal detention, torture, and inhumane treatment of civilians and prisoners of war.
Beatings, electric shock torture, suffocation, keeping people in metal safes, and other horrors that are even difficult to imagine – he used all of this together with other servicemen of his unit. One of his victims was a citizen of Lithuania.
In Lithuania, he has been charged under articles of the Criminal Code for war crimes, torture, unlawful deprivation of liberty, and violation of the Geneva Conventions.
For what he has done, he could face life imprisonment.
I want to note that this became possible thanks to the effective work of the Joint Investigation Team "Ukraine Case" and partnership with Lithuanian colleagues. This is not just a legal action. This is a clear signal to every war criminal: you will not be able to hide from responsibility in any country of the free world. Justice will prevail. I had a constructive conversation about this with the President of the Republic of Lithuania, Mr. Nausėda, and the Prosecutor General of Lithuania, Ms. Grunskienė.