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Ukraine Delivers First Life Sentence to Russian Soldier for Execution of Prisoner of War
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![Photo of Dariia Mykhailenko]( "Photo of Dariia Mykhailenko")
For the first time in Ukraine’s history, a service member of the Russian Federation has received a life sentence for the execution of a captured Armed Forces of Ukraine soldier.
The verdict was delivered based on evidence collected by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the National Police.
According to SBU, the convicted individual is 27-year-old Russian citizen Dmytro Kurashov. The investigation established that he had previously served time in a Russian prison for theft but signed a contract with the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation in November 2023 in exchange for amnesty. In the occupying army, he served as a rifleman in the “Storm-V” assault detachment of the 127th Motorized Rifle Division of the Russian Eastern Military District.
The war crime occurred on January 6, 2024, on the Zaporizhzhia direction, near the settlement of Pryiutne. Kurashov, along with other occupiers, participated in an attack on the positions of Ukrainian defenders.
During the engagement, a Ukrainian soldier, who had exhausted all his ammunition, surrendered. Despite this, Kurashov shot the prisoner of war at point-blank range with a Kalashnikov assault rifle, inflicting fatal injuries. The AFU soldier died on the spot.
On the same day, the Armed Forces of Ukraine forces repelled the attack, driving the occupiers from the seized positions. Dmytro Kurashov and four of his comrades were taken prisoner as the only survivors. Based on the evidence gathered by military counterintelligence and SBU investigators, the court found Kurashov guilty under Part 2 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (war crimes).
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According to the National Police, the Russian soldier will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Earlier, independent Russian outlet Verstka published an article alleging that commanders across multiple Russian units on the Ukrainian front are engaged in lethal disciplinary practices.
These practices reportedly involve summary executions of their own troops or forcing soldiers into what are essentially "suicide" assaults if they refuse orders. According to the article, the troops themselves refer to these actions as “obnulenie” (meaning “nullification” or “reset”) and “execution by attack.”
