A major in the Ukrainian Armed Forces has been sentenced to five years in prison on Aug. 27 for shooting his subordinate in the head with a handgun, according to court news service Sudovyi Reporter.
Maj. Vitaliy Vynnyk, former chief of the 72nd Mechanized Brigade’s communications department, killed serviceman Oleh Tomashuk in 2017, after the latter revealed his unit’s position by posting a video to his Instagram account.
Vynnyk pled guilty but claimed it was not his intention to kill Tomashuk.
Tomashuk had filmed his unit leaving its post in a factory in the front line town of Avdiivka in 2017, then uploaded the video. On March 20, 2017, a video titled “Ukrainian soldier turned Instablogger reveals secret positions of Ukraine’s Armed Forces” surfaced on YouTube.
Tomashuk was reprimanded by deputy chief of the brigade for his actions.
Vynnyk then interrogated members of the unit before calling four of them, including Tomashuk, into his cabinet. He asked if Tomashuk understood that publishing the video may be tantamount to high treason.
Vynnyk then picked up a handgun and shot Tomashuk in the head at close range, killing him.
Witnesses have said that Tomashuk asked the major not to kill him and tried to dodge the bullet.
Vynnyk said his action was driven by a memory from the summer of 2014, when his unit took fire near the town of Amrosiivka. It later turned out that some members of the unit had previously published photos of the unit’s position.
The court ruled that Vynnyk was capable of making rational choices at the time of the murder but accepted his explanation and confession as mitigating circumstances and sentenced him to five years in prison.
The sentence was reduced by another 14 months because Vynnyk had spent seven months in pre-trial detention.
Under Ukrainian law, murder charges typically result in a sentence between 7 to 15 years.
Vynnyk now has 30 days to appeal the decision.
