A Russian court has sentenced two soldiers to life in prison for the killing of a family of nine in occupied Ukraine, marking a rare instance of Russia holding its troops accountable for alleged war crimes.
The Kapkanets family was killed in their home in the Donetsk region last year by Anton Sopov, 21, and Stanislav Rau, 28, according to prosecutors. Among the victims were two young children, ages five and nine. The family had been celebrating a birthday at the time of the attack, Ukrainian ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets confirmed.
Details surrounding the case remain unclear, including whether the soldiers pleaded guilty, as the trial was held behind closed doors due to military secrecy, Russian media reported.
Sopov and Rau were convicted for the murders of Eduard Kapkanets, 53, his wife Tatiana, their adult sons and their wives, a nine-year-old granddaughter, a four-year-old grandson, and a more distant relative. Ukrainian officials speculated that the family was killed for refusing to surrender their home to Russian troops.
The Russian state news agency Tass reported that the men were convicted of murder “motivated by political, ideological, racial, national, or religious hatred.”
Volnovakha, a Ukrainian city near the scene of the killings, was captured by Russian forces shortly after the invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022. Much of the town has since been destroyed.
Russia continues to deny all war crimes allegations in Ukraine, despite extensive documentation of such actions, including the bombing of a theatre in Mariupol sheltering civilians in March 2022, and the killings in Bucha that same month. Russian forces are also accused of operating a network of torture chambers across occupied Ukraine, where civilians and prisoners of war are reportedly tortured and sometimes killed.
The UN has condemned Russian forces for widespread torture, rape, and killings, while the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
