The Ukrainian city of
Mariupol was besieged by Russian forces during the early stages of the war, and by March 2022 the city had been completely encircled. Anton Cherednik was a sergeant in the 36th Separate Marine Brigade who was stationed in Mariupol during the siege. He was born in the city of
Dnipro, and at the time of his trial he was 44 years old. On 27 March, Cherednik and another soldier were patrolling in the Mirny area of Mariupol when they encountered and stopped two civilians, Oleksandr Piskunov and Sergei Potseluev. Cherednik allegedly fired several rounds from his machine gun at the civilians, forced them to lie on the ground and struck one of them with his weapon. The following events are disputed. According to Potseluev, Cherednik ordered the two men to pronounce the Ukrainian word "palyanitsa" (a
shibboleth test sometimes used by the Ukrainian military to identify enemy infiltrators), and when Piskunov was unable to answer correctly, Cherednik shot him. Cherednik initially admitted to this version, Sergei Potseluev was able to answer correctly and the soldiers released him; he returned hours later to bury Piskunov's body. The body was later recovered by Russian authorities, who performed an autopsy and determined that Piskunov had been shot in the back. Cherednik was captured by soldiers of the
Donetsk People's Republic in April 2022. In a video recorded by Russian investigators on 6 April, he admitted that he murdered a civilian in Mariupol. ==Proceedings==