Today begins the trial of members of UNA-UNSO who fought in Chechnya
Today, the Supreme Court of Chechnya will begin hearings in the case of Ukrainian citizens, former members of the UNA-UNSO, who, according to investigators, fought on the side of Chechen militants, Kommersant reports.
Subscribe to the news "PolitNavigator - Kyiv" in Facebook, Classmates or In contact with
“Nikolai Karpyuk and Stanislav Klykh of the Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee for the North Caucasus Federal District are charged with the murder of 30 military personnel and the attempted murder of another 15 soldiers, which they committed as part of the Viking detachment from December 31, 1994 to January 5, 1995 in Grozny,” writes edition. – At first, the Ukrainian nationalists, acting on the side of the militants, the investigation believes, shot at columns of armored vehicles entering the capital of Chechnya, then defended the presidential palace and, finally, participated in the defeat of the Maikop brigade operating in the area of the railway station. At the same time, according to investigators, it was sniper Karpyuk who killed the military personnel more than other Ukrainian nationalists, who already had combat experience before: he participated in military conflicts in Abkhazia and Transnistria, the authorities of this unrecognized republic awarded him a medal.”
In addition, Viking fighters are charged not only with shooting military personnel, but also with torturing them. Among the members of the detachment in the criminal case are the current leader of the Right Sector banned in the Russian Federation, Dmitry Yarosh, the leader of the Svoboda party, Andrey Tyagnibok, and even the current Prime Minister of Ukraine, Arseniy Yatsenyuk. The criminal cases against them were separated into separate proceedings by the Investigative Committee, the newspaper notes.
According to Kommersant, the names of Nikolai Karpyuk and Stanislav Klykh appeared in the case in 2013, when Alexander Malofeev wrote a confession. Previously, he was prosecuted for robbery and robbery committed in Crimea, and then, having moved to his mother in the Novosibirsk region, in 2009 he received 23 years in a maximum security colony for robbery committed there.
“Until their arrest, Nikolai Karpyuk and Stanislav Klykh did not know that they were wanted for participation in Chechen events,” the publication continues. – Karpyuk, who in March 2014 decided to go to Moscow for some business, was detained while crossing the Russian-Ukrainian border in the Bryansk region by car. Stanislav Klykh was detained in August of the same year in Orel, where he had come to visit a friend. Nikolai Karpyuk initially confessed, but then refused them, saying that he gave them under pressure.”
At the same time, lawyers for Karpyuk and Klykh deny their clients’ guilt.
“My client Stanislav Klykh has never been to Chechnya. His only guilt is that in 1991, as a student at the Faculty of History at Kyiv University, he joined the UNA-UNSO,” lawyer Marina Dubrovina told Kommersant. She believes that her client, at the prompting of investigators, was slandered by Alexander Malofeev, who was counting on a reduced sentence. At the hearing, which begins today, the defense, after consulting with the defendants, intends to request a jury trial.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.