Russian court sentences Ukrainian soldier to 12 years' imprisonment

The Southern District Court in the city of Rostov-on-Don, Russia, has sentenced soldier Pavlo Zaporozhets, a Ukrainian citizen, to 12 years’ imprisonment.

Source: TASS; Radio Liberty

Details: Pavlo Zaporozhets was accused in Russia of an attempted "terrorist act" in Kherson on 9 May 2022.

Earlier, during the debate between the parties in the Southern District Military Court, the State Prosecutor asked the court to sentence Zaporozhets to 13 years in prison.

Russian propaganda claimed that Zaporozhets had been recruited by Defence Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine and was preparing to commit an act of terrorism in the then-occupied city of Kherson during the Russian Victory Day celebrations in 2022.

The Russian Kremlin-aligned agency TASS reported that Pavlo Zaporozhets pleaded guilty but did not agree to be tried under the Criminal Code, since he was a soldier and should be tried under the Geneva Convention.

According to the Russian investigation, Zaporozhets had been preparing to carry out the terrorist attack during an Immortal Regiment event that the Russian administration had planned in occupied Kherson.

Zaporozhets himself told the court that he had planned to blow up a Russian military patrol early in the morning – thanks to the curfew, no civilians would have been injured.

The defendant’s lawyer asked the court to dismiss the case and recognise Zaporozhets as a prisoner of war, but the court refused.

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