VELIKY NOVGOROD. Oct 28 (Interfax) - The Soltsy District Court in Russia's Novgorod region on Tuesday recognized the mass executions near the village of Zhestyanaya Gorka during World War II as an act of genocide, regional court spokesperson Maria Vorobyeva told Interfax.
"The court ruled in favor of a motion lodged by the regional prosecutor, Sergei Stolyarov, and recognized the executions of Soviet citizens as an act of genocide," Vorobyeva said.
This is the first such ruling ever pronounced by a Russian court.
The aforementioned ruling handed down by the district court is yet to come into force and can be appealed to a higher court, Vorobyeva said.
As reported earlier, some 2,600 Soviet prisoners of war and residents of Novgorod region villages were executed by firing squad near Zhestyanaya Gorka in 1942-1943, according to archival documents and eyewitness accounts. The remains of 520 people, among them around 200 children, were exhumed there in 2020. The excavations are expected to continue.
The Russian Investigative Committee opened a case into genocide.
The Mourning Mother monument, which depicts a woman cradling an infant in her arms, has been unveiled at the site of the executions.