The Court of Appeal in Milan has acquitted Ukrainian National Guard soldier Vitaliy Markiv and ordered his release from custody. The nightmare for the young Ukrainian soldier, which began on June 30, 2017, is over, but questions should certainly be asked in Italy about how he came to be arrested and held in custody for three and a half years.
The prosecution’s case was heavily influenced by Russian propaganda sources which were used to justify a slanted view of the military conflict in the Donbas, and the deaths of Italian photojournalist Andrea Rocchelli and his Russian interpreter Andrey Mironov in crossfire near Sloviansk on May 24, 2014.