Defender of Mariupol sentenced in "Donetsk People's Republic" to 30 years' imprisonment
A court in the so-called "Donetsk People’s Republic" has sentenced Vitalii Matvienko, a paramedic from the 36th Separate Motorised Infantry Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, to 30 years’ imprisonment in a maximum-security penal colony.
Source: Meduza; Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation
Details: Matvienko, 37, is accused of allegedly killing six civilians in Mariupol and attempting to kill four others.
Russian security officials claim that in March 2022, Matvienko, under orders from his commander, allegedly fired on a car with people inside using an assault rifle, and later, together with other soldiers, targeted a convoy of three cars.
Nineteen Ukrainian servicemen were convicted in the "Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics" in September 2023, another 24 were sentenced in October, and a further 10 in November.
Background:
- In June, the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don hosted a show trial of members of the 22 Azov Brigade who defended the city of Mariupol and the Azovstal steelworks. Eight of the defendants were women who reportedly worked as cooks.
- On 1 November, Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights, said that the terrorists of the "Donetsk People’s Republic" had sentenced one Ukrainian soldier to life imprisonment and another two to 30 years behind bars.
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