Ukraine for the first time handed over to Lithuania a Russian military officer involved in the torture of civilians in Melitopol

For the first time since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion, Ukraine has handed over a Russian prisoner of war to a foreign state for criminal prosecution for war crimes. One of his victims was a Lithuanian.

This was reported by Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko and the National Police.

On October 30, the Vilnius District Court, at the request of the Lithuanian prosecutorʼs office, took a suspected Russian military officer into custody for three months. This is a senior sailor of the military police of the Russian army, who was captured by Ukrainian soldiers in the Zaporizhzhia direction, near the village of Robotyne.

According to the investigation, he was involved in illegal detention, torture, and inhumane treatment of civilians and prisoners of war.

Together with other Russians, he beat prisoners, tortured them with electric shocks, kept them in metal safes, strangled them, psychologically pressured them, etc. All this took place on the territory of the local airfield.

One of his victims was a Lithuanian citizen who was in Melitopol on private business and had no connection to the hostilities.

In Lithuania, a Russian military officer has been charged with war crimes, torture, unlawful deprivation of liberty, and violations of the Geneva Conventions. He faces life imprisonment.

The Prosecutor General called this "a historic and important precedent for the entire system of international justice".

"This is not just a legal action. This is a clear signal to every war criminal: you will not be able to escape responsibility in any country in the free world. Justice will be served," Kravchenko noted.

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