Russia sentences 2 Azov fighters to over 20 years in prison

A Russian court has sentenced two Ukrainian soldiers of the Azov Brigade to more than 20 years in prison for allegedly killing civilians in the city of Mariupol in Ukraine's Donetsk Oblast, Russia's Investigative Committee announced on June 9 on Telegram.

Russia has held a number of sham trials with Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) over the past years, focusing in particular on Azov fighters captured during the war. Azov has been demonized by Russian propaganda for years.

Russian authorities accuse sniper Ruslan Orlov and paramedic Artem Novikov of shooting three civilians in Mariupol in April 2022. The Russian court sentenced Orlov to 26 years in a strict regime colony, and Novikov to 24 years.

Ukraine has not yet commented on the Russian Investigative Committee's statement.

Russia's months-long siege of Mariupol between February and May 2022 reduced the port city to a landscape of rubble and killed thousands.

In the meantime, the Azovstal Steel Plant in Mariupol became a symbol of Ukrainian resistance at the onset of the all-out war, as Ukrainian soldiers valiantly defended the plant under the Russian siege.

On May 16, 2022, Azovstal defenders were ordered to surrender to the encircling Russian forces after nearly two months of constant bombardment of the besieged plant.

The evacuation from Azovstal ended on May 20, 2022, with Ukrainian soldiers transferred to a penal colony in Russian-occupied Olenivka, Donetsk Oblast, now infamous as the site of the mass killing of Azov fighters.

On July 28, an explosion killed 54 Ukrainian prisoners of war and injured over 150 at the Olenivka penal colony. Many of them were members of Azov.

While hundreds of Azov fighters have been released since 2022, hundreds more remain in captivity.