The Security Service of Ukraine has named the first suspects in the shelling of civilian objects from among high-ranking Russian military. She filed charges against Colonel General Sergei Kobylash and Admiral Igor Osipov, who until August 2022 commanded the Black Sea Fleet.
Kobylash is the commander of the long-range aviation of the aerospace forces of Russia. Osipov until August was the commander of the Black Sea Fleet. The SBU collected evidence against both and charged them under two articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The first is the planning, preparation, unleashing and waging of an aggressive war (Part 2, Article 437). The second is an encroachment on the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine (part 3 of article 110). The maximum penalty for both is life imprisonment.
The SBU statement says that Kobylash, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, “has been following the instructions of the top military-political leadership of Russia to destroy Ukrainian cities.” It is on his orders, the SBU emphasizes, that massive shelling of the civilian and critical infrastructure of Ukraine is being carried out. Kobylash participated in both wars in Chechnya, in Georgia in 2008, as well as in the war in Syria, which continues to this day. Accordingto the GUR of Ukraine, under the command of Kobylash, who was born in Odessa, Russia shelled Mariupol:
"For the first time since the end of World War II, under his leadership, heavy bombers carried out carpet bombing of the densely populated areas of the city of Mariupol."
Osipov, according to the SBU, from February 24 to August 10, regularly gave orders to attack Ukrainian cities from the Black Sea. He was at the head of the Black Sea Fleet on April 13, at the moment when the Armed Forces of Ukraine destroyed the cruiser Moskva. There were reports in the media that Osipov was arrested on the orders of the Russian special services. For the next two months, nothing was known about him, but on June 19 he took part in the graduation ceremony at the Black Sea Higher Naval School in Sevastopol. Since February 23, 2022, it has been under European sanctions.
