President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, following the opening of a criminal investigation against Roman Protasevic for massacre during his stay in Donbass and request for a bail interrogation by the Prosecutor of the Luhansk Independence Republic, commented on the case broadcast live in Belarus 1 public channel.
“A criminal investigation has been opened in Donbass against this character. I have welcomed investigators. Because people were killed there, in the Donbass, and he shouted on the plane that he risked the death penalty. Our reporters said that we do not have the death penalty for these charges, but 15 years in prison. He (Protasevic) knew what he was saying. “He understood that he could be sued in Southeast Ukraine and that it would be a completely different situation.”.- said Lukashenko.
According to Rainews, the Lugansk Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement that he was charged with “committing very serious crimes using heavy weapons, including cannons, mortars and anti-aircraft weapons.”
Andrei Biletsky, the former commander of the Ukrainian pro-government volunteer battalion Azov, confirmed Protasevic’s presence in the Donbass during the fierce fighting, while specifying that he was there as a journalist.
On the other hand, the Belarusian media recently released images of Protasevic in the Donbass, taken from his smartphone, which portrays him in a military uniform with a gun in his hand and ammunition in his eyes, without any identification mark in the press. .
There is no death sentence in Lugansk, although the Lugansk Prosecutor’s Office introduces him for serious crimes such as genocide and atrocities committed during the war. In the self-proclaimed Donetsk Republic, on the other hand, the death penalty is provided even if, according to unverified rumors, it would never have been carried out due to lack of practice and lack of executioners.