Friday, October 31st saw Ukraine hand over a captured Russian soldier to Lithuania, where he will be tried for alleged war crimes, following an extradition hailed as a “historic” first.
Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Ruslan Kravchenko said on Telegram:
For the first time since the start of full-scale aggression, Ukraine has handed over a Russian serviceman to a foreign state, Lithuania, for criminal prosecution for war crimes.
Officials said the extradited man was captured by the Ukrainian army in the Zaporizhzhia region near the southern village of Robotyne. He was involved in the “illegal detention, torture, and inhumane treatment of civilians and prisoners of war,” Kravchenko said. One of his victims was a Lithuanian citizen, he added.
Kravchenko also claimed Vilnius was pressing war crimes charges against the man, who could face life imprisonment in the Baltic state.
It is a clear signal to every war criminal: you will not be able to hide from justice in any country of the free world.