Russian military court sentences two officers to a combined 38 years in prison for murder, torture, and desecration of bodies
A Russian military court has sentenced Colonel Yevgeny Malyshko and Senior Sergeant Roman Timonin to 20 and 18 years in prison, respectively, on charges of murder, torture, and desecration of the bodies of seven fellow servicemen. Journalists at Mediazona reported the verdicts on April 2, though the rulings were handed down on February 6 and March 31.
The Ukrainian news outlet Suspilne first wrote about the case in August 2024, citing a source in Russia’s Federal Investigative Committee, saying that Marat Ospanov, commander of the Russian Army’s 6th Motorized Rifle Division, had ordered his subordinates to punish soldiers who violated military discipline or disobeyed orders.
In the summer of 2023, Ospanov reportedly instructed his deputy, Malyshko, to remove seven punished soldiers from basement cells in the city of Popasna, outside Luhansk — where they were being held as disciplinary offenders — and take them to the front line to be executed. Malyshko enlisted several other servicemen, including Timonin, to carry out the order. On July 4, the seven soldiers were taken from the basement, moved to the village of Bakhmutske in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, led into another basement, and killed with grenades.
Another defendant in the case is Warrant Officer Yevgeny Chukanov, whose trial is still ongoing, according to Mediazona.
