Russian General Lapin, who wanted to "take Kyiv in three days", has been sentenced to life imprisonment, – Kravchenko. VIDEO
One of the Russian generals who led the attempt to capture Kyiv, Chernihiv and Sumy regions in the first weeks of the full-scale invasion has been sentenced to life imprisonment.
This was announced by Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko, reports Censor.NET.
What is known
As noted, the individual in question is Alexander Lapin, a colonel-general of the Russian Armed Forces and former commander of the Russian Central Military District. He led the Russian military group ‘Centre’ and directed the offensive from the territory of Belarus and Russia towards the Sumy, Chernihiv and Kyiv regions and the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.
The court found him guilty of encroaching upon the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine, as well as of planning, preparing, initiating and waging an aggressive war.
Direct organiser
Prosecutors proved that in February–March 2022, this general was not merely a ‘nominal’ commander ‘on paper’. He directly organised the invasion, planned and coordinated the actions of subordinate units, issued orders and ensured the continuation of hostilities against Ukraine.
It was under his command that Russian troops occupied settlements in the Chernihiv and Sumy regions and advanced towards Kyiv along the left bank of the Dnipro. Their aim was to capture the Ukrainian capital, state authorities and military command structures, and to establish occupation control.
A just sentence
For this, he received a fair sentence – life imprisonment.
The Prosecutor General noted that as the war criminal is currently in hiding in the Russian Federation, the sentence was handed down in absentia. The term of imprisonment will commence from the moment of his actual arrest.
The crime was solved thanks to the joint efforts of the Office of the Prosecutor General and investigators from the Security Service of Ukraine.
