Prosecutors: Russian soldier who shot at civilians sentenced to 15 years in absentia.

A Russian soldier who shot at Ukrainian civilians in June has been sentenced to 15 years in prison in absentia, Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office said on Dec.

6. According to the prosecutors, the soldier, a senior lieutenant and Moscow resident, was part of a group of Russian soldiers who fired upon a civilian car with a married couple inside as it drove near the village of Velyka Komyshuvakha, near Izium in Kharkiv Oblast. The couple was driving to the embattled city of Bakhmut to evacuate elderly relatives, the prosecutor's office said.

The Ukrainian military was doing aerial surveillance with a drone in the area at the time of the incident and recorded the aftermath of the shooting, which showed the man lying wounded on the road. The woman then signaled to the drone and followed it to a Ukrainian military base. The Russian soldiers who shot at the car found the man, who they assumed was dead, and dragged him to a ditch.

He lay unconscious for hours and then managed to make it to the Ukrainian military on his own. The man survived but received brain and chest injuries. In the course of the investigation, prosecutors found an intercepted phone call from the soldier in question, who told his wife on the phone while laughing, "I killed a man today."

The court found the soldier guilty of attempted murder and other related charges and that his 15-year prison term would be determined pending his actual detention.

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