THEY could have been two shoplifters nervously waiting for a magistrate’s ruling.
But the skinny pair slumped behind bulletproof glass were captured Russian soldiers — and among the youngest war criminals of the Ukraine conflict.
Alexander Bobykin, 26, and Alexander Ivanov, 21, were in an artillery unit that fired at least 38 missiles at civilians and destroyed a school in the early days of the war.
The Sun was at Kotelevska district court of Poltava region yesterday as they each received 12-year sentences.
Despite the enormity of the occasion, the pair sat emotionless as the judge returned his verdict.
But before they were lead away Bobykin told The Sun it had all been a mistake and he wished “the bloody conflict would end”. He even branded it a “failure” by Vladimir Putin.
The pair’s unit fired Grad missiles into Ukraine’s Kharkiv region from neighbouring Belgorod in Russia.
The shelling destroyed a school in the town of Derhachi but caused no casualties, prosecutors said.
Bobykin and Ivanov, described as an artillery driver and a gunner, were captured after crossing the border.
A specialist police investigation, working with prosecutors in Kharkiv, has brought them to justice.
