KYIV — A Russian commander accused of torturing two civilians in the occupied Ukrainian city of Oleshky will face court after Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) completed its pre-trial investigation and prosecutors sent the indictment to court, the Kherson Oblast Prosecutor's Office reported on November 12.
Source: Kyiv Independent
The accused is a 33-year-old commander of a reconnaissance platoon from Russia's 247th Air Assault Regiment, prosecutors said. He has been charged with cruel treatment of civilians and other violations of the laws and customs of war. The prosecutor's office did not name him in the report, and Russia has not commented on the indictment in the sources consulted. Everything below is what prosecutors allege in the indictment — it has not been tested in court.
Source: Kyiv Independent
Ten days in a ninth-floor apartment, prosecutors allege
After Russian forces destroyed the Kakhovka Dam in June 2023, the commander and other Russian servicemen were patrolling the flooded area of Oleshky, a front-line city in Kherson Oblast across the Dnipro River from Kherson, according to the prosecutor's office. That month, the soldiers detained two unarmed local residents, prosecutors said.
Source: Kyiv Independent
The two men were taken to a ninth-floor apartment and held for ten days in dire conditions, deprived of sufficient food, water and basic sanitation, according to prosecutors. One victim was interrogated daily — beaten and tortured with electric shocks through wires attached to his fingers — as the commander demanded details about local volunteers, the prosecutor's office said.
Source: Kyiv Independent
"To intensify the pain, a damp cloth was placed under his feet. During one of the interrogations, the defendant wrapped an electric cable around his neck and strangled him until he lost consciousness," the Kherson Oblast Prosecutor's Office said, as reported by the Kyiv Independent.
Source: Kyiv Independent
The second man, accused by the soldiers of mapping Russian firing positions, endured electric shocks and beatings that left him with fractures of 11 ribs, his sternum and his jaw, prosecutors said. Because of inadequate medical care his wounds became infected, leading to gangrene and the amputation of a finger, according to the indictment account.
Source: Kyiv Independent
One case among more than 55,000 registered offenses
The investigation was conducted by the SBU together with the Kherson Oblast Prosecutor's Office, with support from the 79th Border Detachment of Ukraine's State Border Guard Service, the Kyiv Independent reported. More than 55,000 criminal offenses have been registered in Kherson Oblast since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, according to Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office — including war crimes such as torture, unlawful detention and attacks on civilians.
Source: Kyiv Independent
Other Oleshky residents have described similar treatment to the Kyiv Independent. Olha Liutikova and Serhii Samarsky said Russian forces held them in a basement for three days in the early months of the occupation. "(They interrogated us) because we wanted to live in Ukraine," Liutikova said. "It's a miracle (they let us go)."
Source: Kyiv Independent
Oleshky was evacuated under a local humanitarian truce in late October, when more than 750 residents crossed out of the occupied city. Read: Oleshky evacuees cross into Ukraine and reunite with families
The court will now decide the commander's case on the evidence prosecutors present. Ukrainian courts have tried a number of Russian servicemen for war crimes since 2022; each such case turns on witness testimony and documentation gathered under wartime conditions, and an indictment — as here — is the start of that process, not its conclusion.