US files first-ever war crimes charges, alleging 4 Russians tortured American in Ukraine

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - The US has filed first-of-their-kind war crimes charges, alleging four Russian troops tortured a US national in Ukraine, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.

Suren Seiranovich Mkrtchyan, 45, and Dmitry Budnik are being charged alongside two others -- listed as Valerii and Nazer -- whose last names US authorities have yet to ascertain. They are alleged to have beaten, tortured, threatened the American with death, and staged a mock execution.

The defendants have been charged with three war crimes charges -- torture, inhuman treatment, and unlawful confinement -- as well as one charge each of conspiracy to commit war crimes. The charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison.

“As the world has witnessed the horrors of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, so has the United States Department of Justice,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.

“That is why the Justice Department has filed the first ever charges under the U.S. war crimes statute against four Russia-affiliated military personnel for heinous crimes against an American citizen. The Justice Department will work for as long as it takes to pursue accountability and justice for Russia’s war of aggression," he added.

The indictment alleges the four Russians were fighting in eastern Ukraine when they abducted the victim from his home in April 2022 in the southern Ukrainian village of Mylove in Kherson Oblast. The victim was then allegedly beaten, bound and transported to an improvised military facility in Mylove where he was held for 10 days.

Mkrtchyan and Budnik allegedly then participated in two interrogations of the victim that included torture, further beatings, and a "mock execution" in which he was pinned to the ground, and had a gun pointed at the back of his head, only to have it moved slight to the side before it was fired.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the charging information was obtained when federal agents spoke with the victim during an August 2022 visit to Ukraine to speak with the American.

"The United States will hold the Russian perpetrators of this unthinkable mistreatment, these unacceptable human rights violations, accountable," he said during a press conference.