A Russian military killed a woman in the Kharkiv region for speaking Ukrainian on the phone, the prosecutor’s office reported.
The incident took place on June 2, 2022, in the occupied city of Izyum. A 35-year-old local resident went to the headquarters of the Russian military, where there was access to Wi-Fi and mobile communication, to call her brother who lives in the Ivano-Frankivsk region.
During the conversation, a 40-year-old Russian soldier, deputy commander of the 3rd tank battalion of the 6th separate tank brigade (military unit 54096, 1st tank army of the Western Military District of the Russian Federation), got angry upon hearing Ukrainian language. He shot the woman in the chest, and she died on the spot.
The Dzerzhynsk district court of Kharkiv found the deputy commander guilty of violating the laws and customs of war (part 2 of article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) and sentenced him to 15 years in prison.
Since the convicted person is hiding from Ukrainian justice, the term of punishment will start counting from the moment of his actual apprehension.
