Prosecutor General Calls for Stricter Punishments for Child Killers and Sexual Offenders: Life Imprisonment as the Only Justice
Recently, Ukraine has faced a pressing issue concerning penalties for crimes against minors.
Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko officially proposed strengthening criminal responsibility for especially serious crimes, including murder and sexual assault of children.
He suggested implementing mandatory life imprisonment for offenders committing such heinous acts.
The current legislation, he noted, allows those convicted of child murder to receive up to 15 years in prison, with some even eligible for early release, which he considers unjust.
Kravchenko emphasized that punishments for these crimes must be both strict and equitable, proposing lifetime incarceration as a deterrent.
He cited recent statistics: over the past 19 months, 67 children have fallen victim to deliberate homicides, and 531 children, including 360 under 14, suffered from sexual violence.
Several high-profile cases are already resulting in life sentences, such as the murder of Maksym Materukhin in Kyiv and sexual crimes against minors in Kharkiv and Dnipro.
The Prosecutor General urges lawmakers to support this initiative and revise current laws, ensuring that perpetrators of these atrocities face uncompromising justice without the possibility of leniency.