Russian man charged over killing of two Ukrainian soldiers in Germany

A Russian supporter of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has been charged with murder in Germany over the fatal stabbing of two injured Ukrainian soldiers who were recovering from operations in Bavaria.

The 57-year-old suspect, whose name has not been released because of German privacy laws, was arrested shortly after the knife attack earlier this year in the small town of Murnau.

The two soldiers had been brought to Germany for surgery that had left them “physically limited”.

In a statement, Munich prosecutors said the suspect was loosely acquainted with the two victims from previous encounters and that on the day of the stabbing, the three men were drinking together and argued about the situation in Ukraine — “as a result of which the accused felt that his national pride was hurt”.

The suspect then “decided to kill the two strongly intoxicated Ukrainians in a surprise attack”, the statement alleges, and retrieved a knife from his nearby home. One of the Ukrainians was killed outright while the other died later of his injuries.

According to the prosecutors, the accused is “a supporter of an exaggerated Russian nationalism” and “supports unreservedly the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine”.

A state court in Munich now must decide whether and when the case will go to trial.

Germany has become one of Ukraine’s leading supporters since Russia’s all-out invasion began in early 2022. It is to this day Kyiv’s second-biggest weapons supplier after the US.