A Lithuanian citizen, tortured in Melitopol by a Russian military officer, was not a military man and did not participate in hostilities. When he entered the territory of Ukraine under Ukrainian control, he reported the events, stating that crimes had been committed against him. This was stated by the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Ruslan Kravchenko, during a meeting with the Prosecutor General of Lithuania, Nida Grunskienė, as reported by UNN.
During the hostilities, our Armed Forces detained servicemen of the Russian Armed Forces. After each detention by our troops, the prosecutor's office, together with other law enforcement agencies, checks each person to see if they are involved in committing war crimes on the territory of Ukraine. The Lithuanian citizen is not a serviceman, did not participate (in hostilities - ed.). He is a civilian. When the Lithuanian citizen entered the territory controlled by Ukraine, he stated that crimes had been committed against him.
According to him, together with Lithuanian law enforcement officers, the Prosecutor General's Office of Lithuania immediately began communication, and within the framework of a joint investigative group, an investigation and collection of evidence were initiated.
I want to inform you that today in Ukraine, 190,000 criminal proceedings are registered and investigated together with other law enforcement agencies and other states. No war crime committed on the territory of Ukraine against citizens of Ukraine or other European states, including Lithuania, is forgotten, and we immediately begin an investigation and collection of all necessary evidence. But 190,000 criminal proceedings is a large number and it is difficult to investigate all proceedings. For this purpose, an international joint investigative group was created, which was joined by Lithuania and Poland, and then other European countries, to help Ukraine investigate, collect evidence, and bring all perpetrators to criminal responsibility.
He emphasized that the fact that Lithuania was the first to decide to bring a Russian military officer to criminal responsibility, in accordance with domestic law, is "without exaggeration a historic event."
This is already history that will be included in your history textbooks and the textbooks of all Europe and the world, because we all need to achieve that justice and punish all those guilty of war crimes now, in a year, in two years, but so that the future of our nation, your children, our children would never see this war again. In this regard, we need to achieve this justice, identify all those guilty and bring them to criminal responsibility.
Recall
Ukraine handed over a Russian serviceman to Lithuania for criminal prosecution for war crimes. The suspect has been taken into custody and faces life imprisonment.
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 illegal detention, torture, and inhumane treatment of civilians and prisoners of war.