A court in the Lugansk People’s Republic has sentenced a Ukrainian National Guard serviceman to 15 years in prison for passing to Kiev forces the coordinates of a crowded place that later came under artillery fire, the press service of the Russian Investigative Committee (SK) reported.
“S-2 (Reconnaissance) Section Head Captain Vladislav Melnik of Ukraine's National Guard 2nd Operations Battalion Headquarters who was in the town of Rubezhnoye on April 10, 2022, used a quadcopter to scout the settlement,” the SK press service said. “He detected a group of civilians in 30 Let Pobedy Street who were trying to leave the town through humanitarian corridors. For the purpose of deterrence, Melnik reported their coordinates to Ukrainian armed formations which used BM-82 mortars to shell the civilians.”
The civilians had moved out by the time the strike was delivered so nobody was hurt, the SK said adding that the court had found Melnik guilty of cruel treatment of civilians, use of banned methods in an armed conflict and attempted murder, and sentenced him to 15 years in a maximum security prison.
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The Ukrainian government launched the so-called anti-terrorist operation against Donbass in April 2014. The peace talks that began soon thereafter failed to reach tangible results due to Kiev’s position to settle the conflict by force.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation to protect Donbass residents from Ukrainian aggression on February 24, 2022. Prior to that, LPR and DPR Heads Leonid Pasechnik and Denis Pushilin asked the Russian leader to provide military assistance.
The Lugansk People’s Republic acceded to Russia on September 30, 2022 following the unification referendum.*i*v
