Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks with reporters during a news conference at the Department of Justice on Wednesday as Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, right, looks on.
Mark Schiefelbein/AP
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Mark Schiefelbein/AP
Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks with reporters during a news conference at the Department of Justice on Wednesday as Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, right, looks on.
Mark Schiefelbein/AP
The U.S. Justice Department announced war crimes charges Wednesday against four people affiliated with the Russian military for allegedly abducting and torturing an American citizen in Ukraine following the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion last year.
The indictment, unsealed in the Eastern District of Virginia, marks the first time the U.S. has brought war crimes charges in connection with the Russian assault on Ukraine.
Court papers identify the defendants as Suren Seiranovich Mkrtchyan; Dmitry Budnik; Valerii LNU (last name unknown); and Nazar LNU. Each was charged in connection with illegally detaining a U.S. national following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Justice Department says the defendants allegedly interrogated, beat and tortured the victim, and also allegedly threatened to kill the victim and conducted a mock execution. The actions are alleged to have occurred in April 2022 when Mkrtchyan and soldiers under his command allegedly abducted the U.S. victim from his village in southern Ukraine and “unlawfully confined him for at least 10 days.”
Prosecutors also allege that Mkrtchyan and Budnik were commanding officers of military units of the Russian Armed Forces and/or the Donetsk People’s Republic, the Ukrainian region Russia claims. The other two defendants, identified only as Valerii and Nazar, were lower-ranking military personnel.
The men are charged with three war crimes – unlawful confinement, torture and inhuman treatment – and one count of conspiracy to commit war crimes. If convicted, the defendants each face a maximum sentence of life in prison. They are not in U.S. custody.
“As the world has witnessed the horrors of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, so has the United States Department of Justice,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. “That is why the Justice Department has filed the first ever charges under the U.S. war crimes statute against four Russia- affiliated military personnel for heinous crimes against an American citizen. The Justice Department will work for as long as it takes to pursue accountability and justice for Russia’s war of aggression.”
This story will be updated.