Court in Russia sentences 9 Ukrainians to 14-20 years for supposedly preparing terrorist attacks

A Russian military court in Rostov-on-Don has sentenced nine Ukrainian citizens to between 14 and 20 years in prison on charges of preparing terrorist attacks against pro-Russian collaborator officials.

Source: Russian online outlet Mediazona; the Southern District Military Court of the Russian Federation on Telegram

Details: According to the court, the Ukrainians allegedly were part of a "terrorist group led by officers of the Security Service of Ukraine" and were supposedly preparing to carry out bombings using improvised explosive devices in order to "eliminate the leadership of the military-civilian administration of Kherson Oblast and accompanying Russian servicemen".

The longest sentences – 20 years in a penal colony – were given to businessman Kostiantyn Reznik and his associate Serhii Kabakov. The shortest – 14 years – were given to former Ukrainian serviceman Denys Lialka and businessman and Red Cross volunteer Yurii Kaiev.

Two other defendants – Yurii Tavozhnianskyi, deputy head of the Kherson Port customs post, and Oleh Bohdanov, deputy head of the transport, road infrastructure and communications department of the Kherson City Council – were each sentenced to 18 years in prison.

Ukrainian serviceman Serhii Kovalskyi, fishing production manager Serhii Heidt and manager Serhii Ofitserov were sentenced to 17 years' imprisonment.

The first hearing of this case was held by the court at the end of 2023.

According to the prosecution, in the spring and summer of 2022 the nine Ukrainians supposedly planned a series of terrorist attacks in the occupied part of Kherson Oblast on instructions from the Security Service of Ukraine, including the murder of Kyrylo Stremousov, the deputy head of the pro-Russian administration, former head of Kherson customs Vitalii Buliuk and other collaborator officials.

The investigation said that all nine were detained on 6 October 2022 in Simferopol.

However, the Ukrainians themselves say they were abducted and tortured in the basement of a former National Police of Ukraine building in Kherson, where confessions were forced out of them between July-August and early October 2022.

In court, the defendants retracted their earlier statements and said that Russian security officers had threatened to torture their family members if they did not sign documents and take part in staged "operational-search activities".

The Ukrainians also said that in the Rostov remand prison SIZO-1, where they had been held since the start of the trial, guards beat them during inspections and forced them to sing the Russian national anthem and Russian war song Katyusha.

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