Сourt in Kyiv region has acquitted a Russian serviceman for the first time after he was charged in absentia with looting
The Borodianka District Court in Kyiv region acquitted Russian serviceman Evgenii Murzintsev, who had been charged in absentia with violating the laws and customs of war, according to the Sudovyi Reporter news outlet.
Evgenii Murzintsev (Photo: Myrotvorets website)The case tried by the court occurred in the village of Blystavytsia, where Russians abducted civilian Mykola Yarmolenko and, nearby, shot a car carrying a family, from which doctors managed to save one child.
The victim in the Bucha court case managed to leave her home in the occupied city on February 26, 2022, and only learned upon her return in April that her home had been looted. Items stolen by Russians included:
- a grinding machine;
- a screwdriver;
- an electric sharpener;
- an electric saw;
- a hard drive;
- a CPU;
- a webcam;
- men’s clothing, specifically jackets, sweaters, trousers, and shoes.
A house in Blystavytsia after deoccupation. Photo credit: Buchanski NovynyThe defendant, Evgenii Murzintsev, was one of the Russians who sent stolen goods home from Mozyr, Belarus, following the occupation of parts of the Kyiv region. According to estimates by journalists from Mediazona, the total weight of items sent by Russian troops reached at least 58 tons. Murzintsev alone sent more than 24 kilograms of goods to Rubtsovsk in the Altai Krai.
The court confirmed that Murzintsev was part of the occupying forces in the Kyiv Oblast and later sent a parcel home from Belarus. The court accepted the testimony of the victim’s neighbor, who was also robbed by Russian troops, but found insufficient evidence to prove that Murzintsev personally committed the theft in Blystavytsia.
Human rights defenders commenting on the case to BBC News Ukraine explained that the acquittal was a necessary step.
“The judge must issue a verdict based on sufficient evidence. All verdicts must withstand a possible appeal in appellate courts, right up to the European Court of Human Rights,” said Anna Rassamakhina, head of the justice department at the NGO Media Initiative for Human Rights (MIHR). “We cannot rule out the possibility that Russia may one day want to appeal the guilty verdicts.”
Rassamakhina noted that the acquittal was the first such verdict during MIHR’s monitoring period.
Zera Kozliyeva, legal director of the NGO Truth Hounds, added that the presence or absence of sufficient evidence is one of the biggest challenges when investigating war crimes and other international crimes committed during the Russian occupation.
Looting is among the war crimes most frequently committed by Russian troops in Ukraine. ZMINA has reported on a significant number of Russians exposed for pillaging:
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Vladimir Nomokonov, a 20-year-old native of Chita, Zabaykalsky Krai, Russia, who stole a gasoline generator and many other items from a woman in the Kyiv region.
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Six Russian soldiers in the Kyiv Oblast who last year stole household appliances, gadgets, jewelry, antiques, perfumes, money, food, alcohol, and even hygiene products and linen from people.
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Andrei Lozhnikov, who stole a farmer’s trailer and over half a million hryvnias worth of fertilizer in the Chernihiv region while threatening murder.
Earlier, ZMINA reported that Alina Koreniuk, a resident of Popasna who managed to move to the United Kingdom, recognized her belongings in a photo of a Russian soldier on a tank taken near her house.
