Ukraine charges Russian judges with war crimes over POW sentences
Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) has collected evidence and officially charged two Russian military judges in absentia with war crimes for sentencing two captured Ukrainian soldiers to 18 years in a maximum-security penal colony.
According to an SBU statement released on June 4, judges Konstantin Prostov and Sergei Obraztsov of Russia’s Southern District Military Court handed down the illegal sentences in May and November 2024, respectively.
The victims were both members of Ukraine’s elite 12th Azov Special Forces Brigade and had taken part in the defense of Mariupol from the early days of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
“To send Ukrainian soldiers to Russian prisons, Obraztsov and Prostov staged a show trial based on fabricated charges,” the SBU said in its statement.
Ukrainian authorities emphasized that the two judges violated international humanitarian law, which classifies captured soldiers as lawful combatants. As prisoners of war, they are protected from prosecution for participating in hostilities.
The SBU formally charged both men under Part 1 of Article 438 of Ukraine’s Criminal Code, covering violations of the laws and customs of war. The charges cite breaches of Articles 129 and 130 of the Third Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners of war, adopted on Aug. 12, 1949.
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