(Reuters) – Russia’s first criminal case against a member of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, accused of forcibly seizing power and ill-treatment of civilians, went to court, the state TASS news agency reported on Wednesday.
Russia’s Investigative Committee said on the Telegram messaging platform in June that it had charged Senior Sergeant Anton Cherednik of the Marine Corps of Ukraine’s forces with the alleged crime of cruel treatment of civilian population.
TASS, citing unnamed sources at the Southern District Military Court in Russia’s Rostov-on-Don, said that Cherednik was also charged with murder and training for the purpose of carrying out terrorism.
Reuters was not able to independently verify the reports and the charges.
TASS said the court will consider the case “in the near future.”
The year-old Russian invasion of Ukraine has seen thousands of Ukrainian and Russian soldiers killed and many captured by both sides.
Both countries have denied targeting civilians in their military actions, but thousands of Ukrainians have died as a result of Russian shelling. Washington said that Russia has committed “crimes against humanity”, a charge that Russia denies.
Ukraine has also tried and sentenced a number of Russian soldiers for shelling civilian infrastructure and killing unarmed civilians.
Russia said earlier this week that it has charged 680 Ukrainian officials, including 118 members of the armed forces and defence ministry, with war crimes.
According to Ukraine’s Prosecutor Office, Ukrainian authorities have registered more than 70,000 Russian war crimes since the start of the conflict.
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Michael Perry)
