A court in Kotleva, Kharkiv region,  has sentenced two Russian soldiers to 11,6 years for shelling a civilian area in the country’s east, according to a statement from Ukraine’s chief prosecutor’s office.

Two captured troops, Alexander Bobikin and Alexander Ivanov, pleaded guilty to “violating the laws and customs of war”. Their lawyers asked to bring down the sentence to 8 years, arguing they had been following the commanders’ orders and later made a clean breast of it.

photo by Ukraine’ Prosecutor General’s office

The excuse didn’t impress the judge who said the captives could have disobeyed the unlawful orders.

Both soldiers were part of the Russian military unit that destroyed several residential buildings in Kozacha Lopan and a school in Veterinarne,  Kharkiv region,  with a Grad multiple rocket launcher on February 24, and later retreated to the Russian territory.

The Russians claimed they ‘hadn’t known where they were firing’ and learnt of it from Ukrainian prosecutors.

This is the second verdict handed down in war crimes trials held by Ukraine since the onset of the Russian invasion.