The Prikubansky District Court of Krasnodar recovered 1.5 million rubles from the Ministry of Defense for the death of Private Stepan Tsymbal in favor of his mother. This was reported by the human rights project "Axioma".
Tsymbal died at the age of 19 in February 2019 at the Pogonovo training ground near Voronezh. He was found with a bag over his head, his hands tied, and tape wrapped around his neck. This happened after he was beaten by officer Dmitry Prokhorov. The man drank alcohol on the territory of the landfill, and later discovered that two boxes of vodka were missing from his car. He blamed Tsymbal for everything and attacked him while he was sleeping.
“Prokhorov went up to the bunks where Tsymbal was sleeping, and hit the soldier four times with his fist on the small of the back. Judging by the amplitude, the blows were strong. The officer told Tsymbal to quickly gather all the personnel in the tent. The private was so scared that he put on slippers and ran in one underwear to collect cooks, ”Vesti Voronezh quotes a witness to the incident.
Then Tsymbal offered Prokhorov to return the money for the missing vodka, but the officer refused. After that, according to investigators, Tsymbal was so frightened by the wrath of a senior in rank that he committed suicide. In February 2022, the Voronezh garrison military court sentenced Prokhorov to 4 years probation under the article on abuse of power with the use of violence and causing grave consequences (part 3 of article 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). In April 2022, the sentence was changed to 6 years in a penal colony. Prokhorov did not admit his guilt and stated that he "only patted" Tsymbal and "did not wish him harm."