A Ukrainian court has sentenced Dmitry Kurashov to life imprisonment for shooting dead a Ukrainian soldier who had laid down his weapons and clearly indicated that he was surrendering. This is the first such trial in Ukraine of a Russian accused of the summary execution of a person who should, under international law, have been treated as a prisoner of war. It stands out also because the key witness testimony in the case came from the other members of Kurashov’s own assault unit, with the commander of the unit stating, in addition, that they had been instructed, during training, to not take Ukrainian soldiers prisoner.
Kurashov (nom de guerre ‘Stalker’) was charged with committing a war crime involving homicide under Article 438 § 2 of Ukraine’s Criminal Code, with the indictment passed to the Zavodsky District Court in Zaporizhzhia in November 2024. The trial, before presiding judge Olha Pohribna and two colleagues, was open, with the Media Initiative for Human Rights [MIHR] given permission to provide online coverage of the individual hearings. The degree to which all of the proceedings were open to scrutiny is worth stressing as Russia began staging ‘trials’ of Ukrainian prisoners of war on supposed war crimes charges soon after it began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In the vast majority of such cases, the only ‘evidence’ is from videoed ‘confessions’ from men held incommunicado, without access to independent lawyers. The first information about such ‘trials’ normally coincides with the announcement of the sentence.
Here, Kurashov was accused of the killing of Vitaly Hodniuk, a 41-year-old Ukrainian soldier, on 6 January 2024. Hodniuk had served in the Ukrainian Armed Forces from 2015 to 2020 in Donbas. He had enlisted in the Territorial Defence after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine but had only arrived at the Ukrainian ‘Vovk’ [‘Wolf’] position the day before. This position, which was near the village of Pryiutne in Zaporizhzhia oblast, came under attack in the early morning of 6 January 2024.
This was not one of the many occasions in which summary executions of men surrendering have been recorded on drone footage. The Ukrainians came under attack during thick fog, and the first footage was immediately after the Ukrainian Armed Forces managed to free it and took Kurashov and took at least three others from the assault unit prisoner. It was where Hodniuk’s body was found, and the fact that he was unarmed, that initially aroused suspicion, with the war crime investigation launched in March 2024.
Kurashov appears to have initially admitted the charges but then told journalists that he had done so only in order to get a conviction quickly in the hope of being part of a prisoner exchange. He refused to give a final address to the court and it is unclear whether he will use his right to lodge an appeal against the guilty verdict and life sentence passed on 6 November 2025.
Kurashov has repeatedly claimed that it was a person with nom de guerre ‘Sedoi’ [‘Grey-haired’) who killed Hodniuk, and was later killed himself. This, however, is denied by at least one of his fellow fighters, who testified that ‘Sedoi’ had been in a different unit.
All three other fighters have given testimony which is damning for Kurashov. During his final address to the court, prosecutor Mykyta Manevsky called their evidence crucial and noted that all three had undergone a lie detector test, and that their testimony was corroborated by the facts regarding the location of Hodniuk’s body and the direction from which the shots were fired. As another witness had testified, the fact that Hodniuk was lying face down, while unarmed, suggested that he had not been killed in battle, but as a deliberate execution.
The men’s names were given in court, however they are, or were, prisoners of war, so they continue to be referred to here through letters. Witness A confirmed that he had seen Hodniuk leaving the dugout, and had then heard an assault rifle firing, and saw Hodniuk fall. When asked if he had seen Kurashov shoot Hodniuk, he said that he had not seen clearly enough to say with certainly but that only Kurashov and he had been near the dugout, and that Kurashov had been on his right, from where he had heard the gunfire.
Witness B was the commander of the unit of six men, including Kurashov, which took part, together with two other assault groups, in the attack on 6 January 2024. He testified that he had seen Hodniuk come out of the dugout with his hands up and had then heard the gunfire and seen Hodniuk fall. He had seen ‘Stalker’ on his right and also stated that there had been no one else nearby. When asked if anybody else could have killed Hodniuk, whose body he had seen lying there, he said no.
He also said that he knew the Russian soldier, Sergei Kuchimov (‘Sedoi’) whom Kurashov has claimed shot Hodniuk, but that the latter had been in one of the other assault units which were further away. The prosecution have also examined this claim and concluded that Kuchimov was not near enough to have been involved.
Witness C not only confirmed that Kurashov ordered Hodniuk to come out of the dugout but said that he saw him shoot him. He further testified that he had seen Kurashov take Hodniuk’s watch.
After the hearing, the prosecutor did acknowledge to MIHR that it had not been easy to obtain testimony from the members of this Russian assault unit who “were not, let’s say, the best representatives even of Russian society”. They had difficulty formulating their views and often failed to understand the questions, he said.
The assault unit was made up solely of Russian convicted criminals who had gained their freedom in exchange for agreeing to fight in Ukraine. Kurashov had been serving his second prison sentence, for theft, while the 40-year-old commander of the unit had served 19 years of a 25-year sentence for murder. He had been offered his release and a clean state for signing a contract to fight for a year. It was he who said that they had been instructed, during training, to not take Ukrainian soldiers prisoner. When asked if he meant that they should kill them, he answered yes, for example, by throwing grenades into dugouts.
This is by no means the first evidence that Russian soldiers have been, at the very least, discouraged from taking prisoners, with this alone a war crime.
Although the invaders committed atrocities on many occasions earlier, it was from late 2023 that an increase was seen in the number of summary executions of Ukrainians who had been forced to surrender. According to Ukraine’s Military Intelligence, there are known to have been at least 150 such cases (some of which involve multiple victims) , with the real figure very likely higher.
