Right: Stanislav Rau. Photo: social media

A court in Rostov has sentenced two Russian servicemen to life imprisonment for the murders of a family of nine in occupied eastern Ukraine, state-affiliated business daily Kommersant reported on Friday.

Anton Sopov, 21, who had previously been convicted of hazing involving actual bodily harm in February 2023, and Stanislav Rau, 28, were found guilty of breaking and entering and multiple counts of murder, including the murder of minors. The prosecution requested that both men be given life sentences.

According to investigators, the servicemen entered the home of the Kapkanets family in the town of Volnovakha in the Russian-occupied area of Ukraine’s Donetsk region, in the early hours of 28 October 2023, before shooting nine family members dead with automatic rifles fitted with silencers.

The victims were the owners of the house — 53-year-old Eduard Kapkanets and his wife Tetyana, their two adult sons and their wives, their nine-year-old granddaughter, four-year-old grandson and another relative.

Neighbours reported seeing two soldiers leaving the Kapkanets house on a motorbike on the night of the murder. The motorbike, which was also caught on CCTV cameras, belonged to one of the defendants, who was detained the following day. The second defendant was detained the day after that, Kommersant said.

The court in the southern Russian city of Rostov heard the case behind closed doors, as the case files contained classified information, Kommersant continued, adding that the defendants had pleaded not guilty and planned to appeal the verdict.