A 50-year-old Russian serviceman from Russia’s Sverdlovsk region was sentenced to 12 years in prison for systematically raping a 57-year-old woman for two months in an occupied village in the Donetsk region.
According to the Prosecutor’s General Office on Friday, Aug. 14 the serviceman had spent 32 years in prison for robbery and armed robbery before signing a military contract while incarcerated. He was proven guilty under Part 1, Article 438 of Ukraine’s Criminal Code, receiving the maximum sentence allowed under that provision.
He served in the 114th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade of Russia’s 51st Combined Arms Army as a rifleman.
Attack left the woman trapped with armed soldiers
The Prosecutor’s General Office reported that the assault took place in September 2025, when the small infantry group infiltrated a village in the Pokrovsk district.
Together with two other Russian soldiers – who have also been convicted since – the perpetrator occupied the basement of a private house, where two local residents were sheltering from the shelling at the time.
During one of the attacks, a civilian man was killed, leaving the woman alone inside the basement with three armed soldiers.
Abuse continued for two months
The abuse reportedly began in early October 2025, and continued for roughly two months while the two other soldiers remained present, until the Armed Forces of Ukraine captured the Russian soldier during a combat operation in December.
According to the Prosecutor’s office, the woman had no way to defend herself or leave the location, and the perpetrator threatened to kill her if she resisted.
Soldier denies involvement
The accused denied any role in the crime during the trial, though the prosecutors presented evidence that the court found sufficient for the conviction.
He was proven guilty of conducting war crimes.
Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has continued to violate international humanitarian laws under the Geneva Conventions, with dozens of documented cases of Russian soldiers raping women and children, alongside strikes on civilians and civilian infrastructure.
According to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) on July 9, which investigated Russia’s treatment of Ukrainian children, Russia continues to impose “a coordinated and systematic policy” aimed at erasing the Ukrainian identity of children, including through coercion, intimidation, ill-treatment, illegal adoptions, changes to nationality and indoctrination of children for service to the occupying power.