Two Russian soldiers have been sentenced to life imprisonment for carrying out a massacre of a family of nine people in Ukraine, reports Russian state-controlled media.
The two, both between 20 and 30 years old, were convicted in a secret trial in Rostov-na-Donu for a "mass murder motivated by political, ideological, racist, national or religious hatred".
The act was committed in October last year in the city of Volnovacha north of Mariupol in Donetsk in the Russian-occupied parts of eastern Ukraine.
The murders drew great attention in Ukraine when they became known. The country's human rights commissioner, Dmytro Lubinets, said then that "the occupiers killed the family who were celebrating a birthday and refused to leave their home" so that Russian soldiers could live there.
Russian forces captured Volnovacha early in their invasion war. The city, which had around 20,000 inhabitants before the war, is said to be almost completely destroyed.
The convicted soldiers belonged to the then-paramilitary Wagner Group before joining the army, reports US-financed Radio Free Europe.
