A court has given a long prison term to a Ukrainian serviceman who fired a frame thrower at a bus carrying Rubezhnoye civilians in the spring of 2022, Russia’s Investigative Committee (SK) reported.
“The investigator said that on April 2, 2022, Ukrainian serviceman Yvegeny Kozlov was ordered by 81st Air Mobile Brigade commander, call sign “Leitnab,” to kill civilians who were evacuating to the Russian-controlled zone,” the report said. “Using a rocket-propelled flamethrower, he fired two thermobaric ammunition rounds at a minibus.”
Kozlov who pleaded guilty was sentenced to 15 years in a maximum security penitentiary.
He was aware that the civilian population was not privy to the armed conflict but carried out the unlawful order nonetheless. The minibus caught fire and a woman was wounded by collapsing partition between the driver and the passenger compartment, the SK said.
A criminal case was filed against Kozlov’s commander who had issued the unlawful order.
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The Ukrainian government launched the so-called anti-terrorist operation against Donbass in April 2014. The peace talks 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 on February 24, 2022 to protect Donbass residents from Ukrainian aggression. 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*ie
