A Blog by Jonathan Low

 

Nov 6, 2022

Russian Collaborator Judge Who Sentenced Ukraine Fighters To Death Is Shot

Collaboration is a crime, as many of those who support the Russian invasion are finding out the hard way. JL 

Ivan Nechepurenko reports in the New York Times:

A high-ranking judge in Russian-occupied Ukraine who had sentenced three foreign fighters to death was shot on Friday in an assassination attempt. The judge, Aleksandr Nikulin, has been hospitalized in critical condition and medics are “fighting for his life.” The attackers were not captured, but the shooting fits a pattern of an ongoing shadow war behind the front lines in Ukraine. Saboteurs and guerrilla fighters have been targeting high-ranking officials and collaborators in areas occupied by Russia.

A high-ranking judge in Russian-occupied Ukraine who had sentenced three foreign fighters to death was shot on Friday in an apparent assassination attempt, prompting the separatist leader of the Donetsk region to accuse the Ukrainian government of using “terrorist methods.”

The judge, Aleksandr Nikulin, was shot in the town of Vuhledar, according to a statement by the separatist police force. He has been hospitalized in critical condition and medics are “fighting for his life,” the statement said.

The attackers were not immediately captured and their motives remain unclear, but the shooting fits a pattern of an ongoing shadow war behind the front lines in Ukraine. Saboteurs and guerrilla fighters have been targeting high-ranking officials and collaborators in areas occupied by Russia.

In June, Judge Nikulin presided over the show trial of two Britons and a Moroccan, whom he sentenced to death after declaring they were mercenaries and terrorists seeking to overthrow the pro-Russia local government.

The men said they had volunteered to fight for Ukraine. All three were released in a prisoner exchange in September, along with other foreign soldiers for Ukraine captured in battle.

Denis Pushilin, the head of the breakaway Donetsk People’s Republic that was illegally annexed by Russia at the end of September, accused the Ukrainian government of using “vile terrorist methods.” He wished Mr. Nikulin, who has served on the Supreme Court of the republic since 2019, a quick recovery.

The episode was part of a string of attacks on high-ranking officials in territories controlled by Russia.

According to the Institute for the Study of War, an American research group, Ukrainian partisans have conducted dozens of attacks in occupied areas and have killed at least 11 Russian occupation officials and collaborators since the start of the invasion.

In September, Russian-appointed officials accused Ukrainian saboteurs of blowing up a car in Melitopol in an apparent attempt to assassinate a local pro-Kremlin official.

Earlier that month, they accused the Ukrainian government of organizing the assassination of two officials in Berdyansk. In June, Ukrainian guerrilla fighters claimed to have killed an official who worked in the Russian occupation administration in the Kherson region.

0 comments:

Post a Comment