Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation will check the video with the recognition of the “Azov” in the execution of civilians

The Russian Investigative Committee will launch an investigation after the release of a video in which a captured Ukrainian militant of the Azov National Battalion (a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation) confessed to killing civilians in Mariupol in the spring of 2022. This was announced on Tuesday, June 6, by the press service of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation in the Telegram channel.

“Investigators of the Russian Investigative Committee will investigate the next crimes of the armed formations of Ukraine on the territory of the Belgorod, Kherson regions and the DPR. <…> The media published a video in which a captured Ukrainian soldier of the nationalist Azov regiment banned in the Russian Federation confessed to killing civilians in Mariupol in the spring of 2022,” the report says.

The day before, it was reported that a captured Ukrainian militant of the Azov national battalion confessed to shooting a car with civilians, including three children, in Mariupol in the spring of 2022. He noted that two militants fired at the car, each fired about 10 shots. At the same time, the car had identification marks in the form of white ribbons on the headlights.

Earlier, on May 31, the Supreme Court of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) sentenced Maksim Kondrashev, a serviceman of the Azov association, who fired at a bus with civilians, to life in prison.

On May 21, it became known that the southern district military court in Rostov-on-Don will consider the first two criminal cases, the defendants of which are militants of the radical terrorist group “Azov” of the “SS Bears” group. There are 33 defendants in these cases.

In the DPR on March 28, a fighter of the Ukrainian national battalion “Azov” was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the murder of a woman in Mariupol. The tragedy occurred in the spring of 2022.

On March 23, the DPR Supreme Court sentenced Ukrainian servicemen Andrei Naiden and Danila Kolenov, they were found guilty of cruel treatment of the civilian population and the use of prohibited methods in an armed conflict (part 1 of article 356 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), as well as of the murder of two persons, committed group (clause “a”, “g”, part 2 of article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). They were sentenced to 25 years in prison each.

Prior to that, on March 17, Ukrainian soldier Andrei Karmanov was sentenced to 20 years in a strict regime colony for shooting civilians in Rubizhne in the Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR).

The special operation to protect Donbass, which Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on February 24, 2022, continues. The decision was made against the background of the aggravation of the situation in the region due to shelling by the Ukrainian military.