BBC News 31 May 2022
Two Russian soldiers have been jailed for 11 and a half years for war crimes by a Ukrainian court.
Alexander Bobikin and Alexander Ivanov pleaded guilty to the charges. Both men were members of an artillery unit that had, among other targets, shelled a school in the north-eastern Kharkiv region from Russia.
The soldiers, who were later captured by the Ukrainian military, listened to the verdict from a reinforced glass box in the court in central Ukraine.
Their lawyers argued that the servicemen were fulfilling orders and were forced to commit the crime, but the court rejected that argument.
The war crimes trial was the second Ukraine has held since the Russian invasion. At the first, captured soldier Sgt Vadim Shishimarin was jailed for life for killing a civilian.
