A Russian soldier who confessed to killing a civilian in Ukraine last year has been given a five-and-a-half-year suspended jail sentence by a military court in Russia’s far east on charges of spreading “fake news” about the army.
In an interview with the independent news outlet IStories last August, Daniil Frolkin, 21, said he shot and killed a male civilian in Andriivka, a village near Kyiv that was occupied by Russian forces shortly after the invasion began.
“I tell him: ‘Get down on your knees.’ And I just put a bullet through his forehead. Killed one person,” Frolkin told IStories in a phone conversation published by the outlet.
IStories identified the dead man as Ruslan Yaremchuk, 47.
“I, a military serviceman from military unit 51460, guards private first class, Frolkin Daniel Andreevich, confess to all the crimes I committed in Andriivka, to shooting civilians, stealing from civilians, taking their phones,” Frolkin added.
At least 40 of Andriivka’s approximately 1,000 residents were killed during the Russian occupation that lasted until April, according to the BBC.
Frolkin was part of the 64th Motor Rifle Brigade, a notorious unit based in the Khabarovsk region that has been accused of committing war crimes in Bucha.
Vladimir Putin has previously awarded the 64th Motor Rifle Brigade the honorary title of “guards” and praised the unit for its “great heroism and courage”.
Frolkin is the first known soldier to be sentenced by Russia after admitting to killing civilians. The sentencing is widely seen as a way to deter other service personnel from speaking out.
Moscow has repeatedly denied its troops have been engaged in human rights abuses in Ukraine, despite first-hand accounts by journalists and human rights groups.
Since the start of the war, the Kremlin has passed a series of draconian laws that punish spreading information that contradicts Moscow’s official narrative on the “special military operation” with jail time of up to 15 years.
On Tuesday, the State Duma voted to approve an amendment that would punish those found guilty of discrediting “volunteer” groups fighting in Ukraine, a bill that was widely seen to target critics of the mercenary group Wagner.
This article was amended on 16 March 2023 to clarify that Frolkin’s jail sentence was suspended. He was not sent to jail as stated in an earlier version based on Russian media reports.
