The Irpin court continues to consider written evidence in the case of the murder of Vasyl Avdeev during the occupation of the Kyiv region by Russian troops in March 2022. The trial is being held in absentia. The defendant is Sayan Ilyarov, a senior gunner of the 5th Tank Brigade of the 36th Combined Arms Army of the Eastern Military District of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.
This was reported by a correspondent of Suspilny from the courtroom.
According to the investigation , during the occupation of the Kyiv region, Ilyarov and other Russian servicemen fired without warning at a civilian car carrying a volunteer. The man was delivering food to residents of the villages of the Buchansky district, which were under Russian occupation. The Prosecutor General's Office reported that the man was wounded, but died only after Ilyarov shot him again in the head and, together with his accomplices, hid the body in a sewer well near the village of Berezovka.
According to the indictment announced in court on January 27, 2025, Ilyarov is being tried for a criminal offense under Part 2 of Articles 28 and Part 2 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (cruel treatment of civilians and other violations of the laws and customs of war, combined with premeditated murder by a group of persons in advance). He faces 10 to 15 years of imprisonment or life imprisonment.
When asked by Suspilny whether Ilyarov knew that a trial was underway against him in Ukraine, the prosecutor of the Prosecutor General's Office, Serhiy Revelyuk, said: “There is evidence that journalists called Ilyarov and reported the shooting. Ilyarov did not respond to the call.”
Defense attorney from the Center for Secondary Free Legal Aid, Yulia Shulyak, emphasized at the beginning of the court hearing on March 16: “Regarding the accused, I believe that he has not been properly notified.”
“The victim and the accused did not appear at the court hearing. A decision was made to hold a special trial. The victim had already been questioned and had previously submitted a request to hear the case in her absence,” Yana Shestopalova, the presiding judge in the Ilyarov case, summed up at the beginning of the hearing.
There is only one victim in the case — the wife of the deceased volunteer Vasyl Avdeyev, Tetyana. The court has already questioned her during the trial. Earlier, in a conversation with journalists from Investigation.Info , Avdeyev said that after the start of the full-scale invasion, the man “went volunteering,” but “they didn’t give him anything — not a machine gun, nothing. He went to neighboring villages to warehouses and delivered food to people.” So, when the man was called and told that a large family needed help, he “without hesitation gathered the food and left.”
The man did not return home from that trip: only the next morning did Tetyana see Vasyl's car that had been shot. As evidence presented during one of the court hearings showed, the car Vasyl was driving, a Peugeot 308, had 35 entry and one exit wounds caused by bullets and shells. According to the investigation materials, on March 2, 2022, Russian soldiers spotted Vasyl's car and shot it 21 times in a row without warning.
After Vasyl was murdered, Russian soldiers searched his car, took his groceries and mobile phone, and threw his body into a sewer. Since the Russians had previously checked Avdeev’s documents, which were in the pocket of his clothes, and had identified him, they found a family with the deceased’s last name that same day and informed his relatives about his murder. However, her husband’s body, as Tetyana told investigators, was only found six months later, about half a kilometer from the scene.
Since 2025, the court has continued to consider written evidence in the case.
“I ask you to attach the report of the inspection of the car in which the victim was shot, dated January 20, 2023, the resolution on the recognition of material evidence. Also, the bullet that was seized during the inspection of the car, and the conclusion of the examination of the bullet issued by the witness. In addition, the report of the inspection of the scene of the incident, during which the casings were seized. And the resolution on the appointment of a ballistics examination,” the prosecutor said at the meeting on March 16.
In addition, the meeting reviewed data from the “SPO SK:AS “Russian Passport” system regarding the accused. In particular, the date and place of his birth, as well as data on obtaining his first passport at the age of 14 in 2009 and information on the loss and acquisition of a new passport in 2018.
Disputes during the trial caused inaccuracies in the evidence provided to the court — in particular, the wording regarding the territorial affiliation of Berezivka, which was referred to generically as an “adjacent district” to Bucha, Irpin, and Gostomel. “Now officially (the village of Berezivka — ed.) is Buchansky district. But here in the certificate it says: “in the adjacent district.” “The village of Berezivka is Buchansky district, but it does not adjoin the city of Irpin,” the judge clarified.
Earlier in the trial, information about Ilyarov's Telegram account (where, in particular, his phone number is visible) was already examined. The court also examined the resolution on the appointment of a ballistics examination, the report of the inspection of the scene, the resolution on the recognition of the bullet, which was seized during the autopsy of Avdeev's body, as material evidence, the resolution of the forensic ballistics examination, and the conclusion of the examination regarding the bullet. According to the investigation, the shots at Avdeev's car were fired from a special sniper rifle “Vintorez”.
At the next hearings, scheduled for May 18 and 26, 2026, the court must continue and complete the review of Internet resources, identification, and other video recordings related to the case contained on the disks. Then, in accordance with the previously determined procedure for considering the case, the questioning of witnesses remains.
As the investigation established, Ilyarov had an accomplice – a native of Buryatia, Linchobo Naidanov, who ended up in Ukraine during the full-scale invasion as a senior gunner of the 5th separate tank brigade as part of the Russian group “Vostok”. He, like Ilyarov, is accused in absentia of violating the laws and customs of war, combined with intentional murder. His case is currently being considered by the Kyiv-Svyatoshynskyi District Court of Kyiv.
Sayan Ilyarov. National Police of Ukraine
This material was prepared within the framework of the INSTITUTE FOR WAR & PEACE REPORTING project “Justice Live”.