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Russian soldier Dmytro Kurashov, accused of committing a war crime by executing a Ukrainian serviceman who had surrendered during combat, attends a court hearing in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on November 6, 2025. (Reuters via CNN Newsource)
By Daria Tarasova-Markina, Sophie Tanno, CNN
(CNN) — A Ukrainian court has found a Russian soldier guilty of killing a Ukrainian prisoner of war in a January 2024 incident and sentenced him to life in prison, in the first ruling of its kind.
Dmitriy Kurashov, 27, was convicted by a court in Ukraine’s southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia for shooting dead a Ukrainian soldier who had just surrendered to his unit.
According to Ukraine’s security service, Kurashov had previously served time in a Russian prison for theft, and in November 2023, he signed a contract with the Russian defense ministry in exchange for amnesty.
The court found Kurashov guilty of firing on the Ukrainian soldier at point blank range during an attack in the vicinity of the village of Pryiutne in the Zaporizhzhia region on January 6, 2024.
The soldier had already surrendered during the battle after running out of ammunition, the security service said. According to the prosecutor, the Ukrainian came out of a dugout unarmed, raised his hands and clearly indicated his surrender. At the request of the Russian soldier, he knelt down, but was shot with an automatic weapon and died on the spot.
In a separate case, a Russian soldier who had been accused of robbing a house in the village of Blystavitsy in the Bucha district of the Kyiv region in March 2022 was found not guilty. This ruling was based on a lack of evidence.
Kurashov’s sentencing is unprecedented, marking the first time a Russian soldier has been jailed for killing a captured Ukrainian since the start of the war.
Kyiv says many Ukrainian prisoners of war have been killed by Russia’s forces, but there have so far been no legal ramifications.
Earlier this year, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s office said it had, as of May 5, opened 75 criminal investigations into the suspected executions of 268 Ukrainian prisoners of war.
It said the number of alleged executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war has been rising, with eight cases involving 57 soldiers in 2022, eight cases involving 11 soldiers in 2023, 39 cases with 149 soldiers in 2024, and 20 cases up to May 5 this year, with 51 soldiers.
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