A Ukrainian court found a Russian soldier guilty of murdering a Ukrainian prisoner during an incident in January 2024 and sentenced him to life in prison. Dmitry Kurashov, 27, was convicted by a court in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia for shooting a Ukrainian soldier who had just surrendered to his unit. According to the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU), Kurashov previously served time in a Russian prison for theft and signed a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense in November 2023 in exchange for a pardon. The court found Kurashov guilty of fatally shooting a Ukrainian serviceman at close range during shelling near the village of Pryyutne in the Zaporizhzhia region on January 6, 2024. The soldier had already surrendered during the fighting after running out of ammunition, the SSU reported. According to the prosecutor, the Ukrainian emerged from the fortification unarmed, raised his hands, and clearly indicated his surrender. He knelt at the demand of the Russian soldier but was shot with an automatic weapon and died instantly. In a separate case, a Russian serviceman accused of robbing a home in the village of Blystavytsia in the Bucha district of the Kyiv region in March 2022 was found not guilty. This decision was based on a lack of evidence. The verdict against Kurashov is unprecedented, marking the first time a Russian soldier has been imprisoned for murdering a Ukrainian captive since the start of the war. Kyiv alleges that many Ukrainian prisoners of war have been killed by Russian forces, but there have been no judicial consequences until now. Earlier this year, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine stated that as of May 5, it had initiated 75 criminal proceedings on suspicion of shooting 268 Ukrainian prisoners of war. It noted that the number of alleged executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war is increasing: there were eight cases involving 57 soldiers in 2022, eight cases involving 11 soldiers in 2023, 39 cases involving 149 soldiers in 2024, and 20 cases involving 51 soldiers up to May 5 of this year.
About the Author
