MOSCOW: Russia on Friday charged its four soldiers for torturing a US citizen living in Russian-held Donetsk who had fought with pro-Moscow forces since 2014, western media reported.
It is a rare incident for Russia to accuse its soldiers of committing crimes in Ukraine.
The authorities did not reveal what had motivated the soldiers to kill Russell Bentley, who appeared regularly on pro-Kremlin social media channels, supporting Moscow’s full-scale military operation in Ukraine.
64-year-old Bentley, known as “Texas”, was declared dead in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk in April. His wife said he had been abducted and killed by Russian soldiers.
The Russian Investigative Committee on Friday said it had arrested all the persons involved in the death of Russell Bentley and the circumstances of the offences they committed.
It named the four soldiers involved as Vladislav Agaltsev, Vladimir Bazhin, Andrei Iordanov and Vitaly Vansyatsky.
They are accused of using torture and physical violence, causing the death of a victim by negligence. According to the investigation report the soldiers tortured and killed Bentley in Donetsk on April 8. Bentley, who was from Austin in Texas, had served in the US army in the 1980s.
