Ukrainian prosecutors have issued a notice of suspicion to a Russian soldier who gave an order to intentionally kill civilians during an evacuation. This was not a combat engagement, but a deliberate opening of fire on a civilian vehicle that bore no signs of being a military target, Prosecutor General's Office reports.
Not a battle, but an order to destroy: What happened during the March 2022 evacuation
According to the investigation, in March 2022, the suspect, who served as the commander of a combat vehicle in one of the Russian airborne assault units, ordered the crew of a BMD-2 infantry fighting vehicle to open fire on a civilian car.
The vehicle was carrying three civilians who were attempting to evacuate.
“The car bore no signs of affiliation with military objects. The crew fired at least 15 rounds from a 30-mm cannon, and after the vehicle stopped, fire was opened again,” law enforcement officials stated.
As a result of the shelling, the driver and two passengers were killed.
A clear-cut war crime: Legal qualification of the case
Law enforcement authorities emphasize that this episode fully meets the definition of a war crime under international humanitarian law.
The suspect is charged under Article 438 of Part 2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
"Issuing an order to violate the laws and customs of war, combined with the intentional killing of civilians," the prosecutors say.
The shooting of a civilian vehicle during evacuation definitively refutes any Russian claims about “protecting civilians” or so-called “liberation.”
