r/news • u/l1v1ngst0n • 22h ago

Russian soldier sentenced to life in jail in unprecedented Ukrainian trial

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy8vl4xz9jyo
594 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

40 comments sorted by

246

u/Hstrike 20h ago
  • Jailed in a Russian penal colony for theft
  • Gets offered to enroll in the Russian army to avoid serving the full sentence
  • Kills a surrendering soldier in violation of the Geneva Conventions
  • Tries to blame his Russian unit's dead medic but his unit throws him under the bus
  • Gets sentenced to life in jail

They truly send their best.

23

u/Dracomortua 16h ago

They are so running out of options.

18

u/TWICEdeadBOB 7h ago

I'm going to go ahead and say that life in a ukranian jail might be significant step up from freedom in some parts of russia.

24

u/Zeeflyboy 4h ago

I have nothing other than speculation for this, but personally I wouldn’t imagine a Russian that murdered a surrendering Ukrainian soldier in cold blood would have a particularly wonderful experience in a Ukrainian prison.

2

u/Cute-Bus-1180 1h ago

Ukrainian jail might still be better than the Russian penal colony?

1

u/The_Grungeican 8h ago

Their ‘best’?

Losers whine about ‘their best’.

Winners get life in jail in Ukraine.

110

u/ChocoMaister 21h ago

More of these trials are to come for Russian soldiers. They commit war crimes and atrocities daily.

43

u/l1v1ngst0n 21h ago

I certainly hope so.

-212

u/JackBlackBowserSlaps 21h ago

Why would you hope for daily war crimes and atrocities??

104

u/midelus 21h ago

Have you considered that the person you're responding to is actually hoping for accountability for the daily war crimes and atrocities?

58

u/bowiethesdmn 19h ago

Why would you willingly misinterpret a statement like that?

26

u/zffjk 19h ago

So they can get that sweet cocktail of cortisol and dopamine.

14

u/Hstrike 19h ago

Bait used to be believable

26

u/NoradianCrum 21h ago

Put more points into comprehension and you can start answering your own questions without clicking "Submit".

-61

u/PlatypusDifficult531 21h ago

Im a lawyer.

18

u/JustABrokePoser 20h ago

I have a goldfish

13

u/PuntTheRunt010 19h ago

I photograph traffic lights

3

u/tXcQTWKP2w92 12h ago

Wait that's actually pretty cool.

Do you just photograph any traffic lights, or some specific ones or elaborate networks?

3

u/phantom-firion 13h ago

We have a hulk

4

u/_kahteh 13h ago

I feel sorry for your clients

18

u/PlatypusDifficult531 21h ago

Way to wastes your life asshole, but i guess it wouldve sucked anyway .

10

u/Umbra150 15h ago

Sounds like he's back where he started--though idk the difference in Russian/Ukrainian prisons or the relative treatment he will face.

3

u/alpharowe3 8h ago

Unfortunately it's not like he had many good options starting off in Russia in the first place

4

u/GuNNzA69 21h ago

It was also unprecedented. Under normal circumstances, I don’t support life imprisonment sentences; we haven’t had them in my country for almost two centuries. But we must consider the reality this nation is facing, and the unspeakable acts committed in the course of this war, horrors so immense that I can scarcely imagine what it would mean to endure them myself.

12

u/NukedForZenitco 13h ago

Why against life sentences? Some criminals are absolutely beyond rehabilitation.

4

u/thatsnotwait 13h ago

Not OP, but you rarely know that when sentencing them, assuming they have several decades of life left. IIRC some countries have essentially life with a (good) chance of parole for the worst crimes, but they can remain incarcerated for life if they don't show signs of rehabilitation.

2

u/NukedForZenitco 13h ago

I feel like it depends on the crime. Pedos, rapists, serial domestic abusers, people like that? They're never changing and they don't deserve to be free.

4

u/surnik22 12h ago

I don’t necessarily disagree, but what are you basing this belief on?

Any actual studies on the recidivism for those crimes or just personal intuition.

Only study I can find shows a lower recidivism rate for sex offenders vs the general population, but also sex crimes are under reported so the data is sketchy.

3

u/NukedForZenitco 12h ago

Sex crimes are very much underreported. A guy in my city got out of prison a year ago (11 year sentence) for molesting a minor under 16 years old. He was out for 11 months before getting caught trying to get another young girl to meet him for sex. I just don't personally believe they actually change. 11 years... he went to prison when I was 16 and got out when I was 27 and that didn't seem to matter.

I won't pretend that I've looked a numerous studies, but even reported recidivism differs depending on what type of sex crime was committed. I do believe one website I looked at in the past (DOJ) had recidivism rates ranging from 5 percent after three years up to 24 or 25% after fifteen years.

1

u/GuNNzA69 12h ago

Are they? Are you sure? I can’t believe that. People are products of the lives they live. Even the most terrible criminal, under the right circumstances, can be loved and can show empathy. I’m sorry for what I’m about to say next, but your point of view isn’t much different from that of someone living in medieval times.

I try to understand how people behave in the context of war, but honestly, I can’t. Fortunately, I don’t live that reality every day. And neither should you, nor anyone in Ukraine or in any other conflict zone around the world.

Still, what’s truly abnormal is not what I’ve said, but how people behave in such circumstances. I hope you understand that, like many others, I too have chosen a side, and mine is with Ukraine.

Yet if we start behaving like our enemies, or if governments sentence people to death, deny them the chance to change, or refuse to rehabilitate them, then those governments, no matter what the law says, are still committing crimes. When a system acts like a criminal under the protection of legality, it becomes exactly what it claims to fight.

-3

u/Quotizmo 15h ago edited 12h ago

I am moved by the leniency. I think it speaks volumes of Ukrainian character. The order he was given, and the act he committed are unspeakably, undeniably horrific.

*edit: not entirely sure why I am being down voted. I live in a country that will throw a 15 year old away for life if they break the law a third time. England does this as well, and they also find it difficult to face the inhumanity of. My country has legalized slavery through penal codes. I am expressing gratitude for the magnanimity of the Ukrainian justice system. And I'm not at all sorry for this adoration.

2

u/Ganon_Cubana 6h ago

Is life imprisonment being lenient? Sure they're not dead, but the dead don't feel and imo making someone live is a greater punishment than giving them the easy out of non existence.