They are accused by American justice of having kidnapped and tortured an American living in southern Ukraine. This man, whose identity has not been revealed, was able to be evacuated from Ukraine.
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For the first time since the start of the conflict in Ukraine, the United States is filing war crimes charges against Russian soldiers, American authorities announced Wednesday, December 6. “The Department of Justice has initiated the first-ever prosecutions under the U.S. War Crimes Act against four members of the Russian-affiliated military forces for heinous crimes against a U.S. citizen” in Ukraine, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a news conference.
The facts date back to April 2022, in the village of Mylove, in the Kherson region, in southern Ukraine. Four members of the Russian forces, including two clearly identified officers, kidnap an American married to a Ukrainian woman. He is taken to a Russian military compound. Prosecutor Merrick Garland details his conditions of detention: “During ten days of detention by Russian-affiliated forces, the victim was tortured, threatened with sexual assault and execution, forced to perform manual labor and beaten on the head, chest and stomach, with feet, fists and weapons. Again and again.”
“He thought he was going to die.”
Merrick Garland, Attorney General of the United Statesduring a press conference in Washington
The identity of this American national is not known but he may have been evacuated from Ukraine. The four soldiers are accused of war crimes, illegal detention and torture. They face life in prison if they are ever arrested by the United States. The White House does not have an extradition agreement with Russia.
