Russian sentenced to life in Ukraine’s 1st war crimes trial
[MGN]
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – A Russian soldier who pleaded guilty to killing a Ukrainian civilian was sentenced to life in prison.
The sentencing Monday came in the first war crimes trial since Moscow invaded three months ago.
That war has unleashed a brutal conflict that has led to accusations of atrocities, left thousands dead, driven millions from their homes and flattened whole swaths of cities.
In a rare public expression of opposition to the war from the ranks of the Russian elite, a veteran diplomat resigned and sent a letter to foreign colleagues in which he said he had never been so ashamed as on the day Moscow invaded.
Since then, a stiff Ukrainian resistance has bogged Russian troops down as they attempt to press an offensive in the eastern Donbas region.