A Ukrainian court has handed down the first jail sentence for life against a Russian soldier accused of killing a Ukrainian prisoner of war.Dmitry Kurashov, 27, was found guilty of shooting dead Vitalii Hodniuk, a veteran 41-year-old Ukrainian soldier who had surrendered following capture in 2024.Ukraine’s national police said that “expert reports, witness testimony and video footage from the scene confirmed that the Russian soldier deliberately killed the POW on the orders of his commanders, who had instructed troops not to take Ukrainian soldiers captive”.In a months-long trial which began earlier this year, the court heard how Kurashov’s unit stormed a Ukrainian position in the region of Zaporizhzhia on the morning of 6 January 2024.The prosecution said that although Hodniuk crawled out of a dugout unarmed and surrendered, Kurashov shot him point-blank with several aimed AK-47 shots – a violation of the laws of war.Kurashov and the rest of his unit were later overpowered by Ukrainian forces and taken as prisoners of war.Kurashov initially pleaded guilty but later retracted, saying he had only done so to expedite the trial in the hope that he would be released in a prisoner swap. He maintained it was a Russian medic – who later died – who fired the shots that killed Hodniuk.His version was refuted by other members of his own unit who were later captured by Ukrainian troops and were also being held as prisoners of war.They said they saw Hodniuk emerge from the foxhole unarmed with his hands up after Kurashov called for Ukrainians to come out of their foxholes and surrender.Although they did not witness the shooting because there were explosions at the same moment, all three said nobody but Kurashov had been around when they heard the gunshots. One said the medic accused by Kurashov was not present on the scene when the killing occurred.Kurashov himsel …
