A Kherson court has sentenced a russian marine in absentia to life imprisonment for the brutal murder of seven civilians in Pravdyne, Kherson region.

What is known about the offender

Nesterov Dmytro Yevhenovych (born February 9, 1991) is a native of Feodosia and a commander of a marine unit of the Black Sea Fleet of the russian navy.

On February 24, 2022, he crossed the administrative boundary between Crimea and Kherson region at the head of his unit to conduct hostilities against Ukraine.

From March to October 2022, he was stationed near the villages of Pravdyne and Myroliubivka in Kherson region, where he organized the suppression of local resistance, carried out “filtration measures”, and forced residents to cooperate with the occupiers.

In February 2015, he was served a notice of suspicion under an article on desertion (Part 1 of Article 408 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

Circumstances of the crime

On the night of April 11–12, 2022, in the village of Pravdyne, Kherson district, Nesterov, acting together with other russian servicemen, committed the premeditated murder of seven civilians.

Nesterov and his subordinates first entered the territory of the TAS Tavria service facility (112 Vysotska Street). There, they unlawfully detained three security guards. The detainees were taken to a private house at 55 Stepova Street and killed, along with three other guards and a 15-year-old girl who had been unlawfully detained earlier.

Two men were shot in the back of the head with automatic weapons.

To conceal the crime, russian military personnel blew up the house together with the victims’ bodies using a large-caliber artillery shell.

After the de-occupation of the settlement in November 2022, prosecutors, together with police investigators and forensic experts, exhumed the bodies and conducted a detailed examination of the crime scene. The victims had gunshot wounds to the head and their hands were tied. Forensic examinations confirmed the violent nature of the deaths.

Testimonies from local residents further clarified the events: the occupiers did not allow the victims to be buried for a long time. An exception was made only for the child, who was buried the following day.

Verdict

Nesterov was found guilty of high treason and violations of the laws and customs of war that resulted in deaths (Parts 1 and 2 of Article 111, Part 2 of Article 28, Part 2 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

The court found that after the occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, the convicted man sided with the enemy, obtained russian citizenship, and began serving in the armed forces of the aggressor state, where he later held a command position.