MOSCOW. May 17 (Interfax) - An artilleryman of the Ukrainian Armed Forces has been given a 20-year prison sentence in the Lugansk People's Republic (LPR) for murdering a civilian and for committing other crimes against the Donbass population, the Main Military Prosecutor's Office said on Wednesday.
"The Supreme Court of the Lugansk People's Republic convicted Pavel Smilko, a gun layer for a 100 mm Rapira anti-tank gun of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, for intentionally damaging others' property by means of an explosion, murder perpetrated by an organized group using a socially dangerous method, brutal treatment of the civilian population, and the use of prohibited means and methods in an armed conflict," the Prosecutor's Office said.
It has been established that in March 2022 in a forest near Popasnaya in the LPR, Smilko, "acting on orders from the commander of an anti-tank gun, fired at a residential area with the aim of intimidating and eliminating the civilian population."
The strike killed a 31-year-old local man and damaged four houses and civilian property.
The court agreed with the arguments presented by the state prosecutor, who is a representative of the Military Prosecutor's Office of the joint group of forces, and sentenced Smilko to 20 years in a high-security correctional facility, the Prosecutor's Office said.