A Russia-installed court in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region has jailed three Ukrainian soldiers, Russia's Investigative Committee said Thursday, accusing them of a range of crimes including murder.
The verdicts came a day after the same court sentenced three other Ukrainian soldiers, all of whom were charged with inflicting "cruel treatment on the civilian population."
The soldiers sentenced on Thursday all fought in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, which was captured by Russian forces last May after a devastating siege that left the city in ruins.
Russia's Investigative Committee identified the three accused as Ukrainian marines Vladimir Pafitsevich and Yevgeny Vakhnenko, as well as a serviceman named Yegor Kuranov.
The court accused Pafitsevich and Vakhnenko of killing an unarmed 44-year-old civilian during the siege of Mariupol, while Kuranov was charged with multiple crimes dating back to 2018 — when Ukraine was battling Russia-backed separatists in the region.
Moscow now claims Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region as its own, along with the regions of Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, which it annexed after a formal ceremony last September.
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