LPR militants to face trial for torturing residents of Izium district

This is according to the Prosecutor General's Office, as reported by Ukrinform.

The accused are members of the 202nd Motorized Rifle Regiment of the so-called LPR and the battalion chief of staff from the 126th Regiment of the Russian National Guard.

On March 2, 2022, the Russian forces, including these six accused individuals, took control of the villages of Savyntsi and Dovhalivka in Izium district. In these occupied settlements, they detained pro-Ukrainian residents in makeshift prisons and tortured them. To obtain information about Ukrainian military personnel and locals supporting the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the occupiers used physical and psychological violence, including torture.

The victims were tied up, beaten, and subjected to gunfire near them. Some were taken to the forest for mock executions. People were kept in inhumane conditions, without access to food, water, or sanitation.

One illegally detained man was repeatedly stabbed in the leg, with the knife twisted in his wound to inflict maximum pain. Among the victims was a local council deputy from the Savyntsi community, interrogated personally by the battalion chief of staff, who threatened him with genital mutilation while another suspect beat him. Following this abuse, the assailants threw a smoke grenade into the room, causing the deputy to choke.

Later, they dragged him outside, put a rope around his neck, and began to strangle him, demanding information about local partisans. The man eventually lost consciousness and was revived, only to be further beaten as he lay on the ground. This torture was repeated multiple times.

Another victim, a 59-year-old man, died of severe injuries from the torture inflicted by the occupiers. The other victims survived.

The indictment accuses the suspects of violating the laws and customs of war as part of a premeditated conspiracy (Part 2 of Article 28 and Parts 1 and 2 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). The perpetrators are currently wanted and will be tried in absentia.

As Ukrinform reported, two Russian soldiers were previously sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment for firing at a civilian vehicle in an attempt by civilians to escape the temporarily occupied village of Rohozhchi in Chernihiv region in spring 2022.