Vitaliy Markiv

Senior Sergeant of the National Guard Vitaliy Markiv was arrested in Italy in June 2017. Italy accuses him of killing Italian photojournalist Andrea Rocchelli and his Russian interpreter Andrei Mironov with a mortar: both died near Sloviansk in May 2014.Both Vitaliy Markiv himself and the Ukrainian side involved in the process reject all charges. They argue that the Ukrainian fighters held a completely different position from the one from which the shots that killed the Italian photojournalist were fired. That position was held at the time by pro-Russian militants of Strelkov-Girkin's unit.Despite this, on July 12, a court in the Italian city of Pavia decided to imprison Vitaliy Markiv for 24 years. In addition, part of the Ukrainian delegation was not even allowed into the courtroom. Note that the Pavia prosecutor's office had earlier asked for the Ukrainian to be sentenced to 17 years in prison.Official Kyiv took the news extremely negatively – in Ukraine, the verdict and the charges against Markiv are considered unfair. At the same time, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov stated that Ukraine would appeal the Italian court's decision.