A court in Ukraine has sentenced a Russian soldier from Siberia to 10 years in prison for shelling a residential building in Ukraine's northern city of Chernihiv in late February.

A court in Chernihiv sentenced Sergeant Mikhail Kulikov on August 8 after he pleaded guilty to shooting a tank cannon at a high-rise building on February 26, two days after Russia started its ongoing, unprovoked invasion.

Kulikov said at the trial that he followed the command of his superior, who shouted that there was a person with a grenade launcher in the building, which later turned out to be false.

The shelling caused no casualties but destroyed two private apartments and technical premises in the building.

"I want to say to all who were affected by what I did both morally and physically that I am sorry. I have regretted what I did from the very beginning to this day. I am really sorry. Forgive me. I just want to go home to my family. Thank you for everything," Kulikov said at the trial.

Sources in Kulikov's native town of Zarinsk in the Altai region told RFE/RL that the 31-year-old Kulikov served as a gunner in a tank unit in the town of Aleisk.

Earlier in May, another Russian soldier from Siberia, Vadim Shishimarin of Irkutsk, was sentenced to life in prison for shooting to death a civilian in Ukraine's northeastern region of Sumy. That sentence was later changed to 15 years in prison.

Also in May, a court in the northeastern town of Kotelva sentenced two Russian soldiers, Aleksandr Ivanov and Aleksandr Bobykin, to 11 1/2 years in prison each after finding them guilty of shelling and destroying several residential buildings in the town of Kozacha Lopan and a school in the town of Veterinarne in the eastern Kharkiv region on February 24, the first day of Russia's full-scale invasion.