Ukrainian Working For Russia Who Planned To Assassinate Ukraine Official Gets 12-Year Sentence

A Ukrainian man who collaborated with Russian authorities following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine has been sentenced to 12 years in prison, Ukrainian authorities announced this week.

The Pechersk District Court in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv passed the sentence Tuesday on charges of treason, preparing to commit contract murder, and participating in illegal armed groups and a terrorist organization.

Prosecutors were able to prove that the unnamed man, identified only as a Ukrainian citizen from the partially Russian-occupied province of Luhansk, supported Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine in 2014, according to a statement released on the same day by the press service of the Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office.

He also personally participated in hostilities on Russia’s side as a member of the People’s Militia of the Russian-backed Luhansk People’s Republic separatist state.

Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine that started more than a year ago, representatives of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, also known as the GRU, reputedly Russia’s largest foreign-intelligence agency, recruited the man, the statement read.

The man’s Russian supervisors later allegedly tasked him with organizing the contract killing of the head of a Ukrainian combat unit.

This assassination attempt, which was foiled by Ukrainian law enforcement officers, was supposedly a test for the man before he would be tasked with carrying out the contract killings of political and public figures in Ukraine, including the country’s defense minister.

The man’s Russian handlers promised him a $100,000 reward for each murder, according to the Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office.

A special operation led to the man being detained in Ukraine’s northwest Volyn province last August, and he fully admitted his guilt during trial.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed into law two bills on collaborationism that were adopted by Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, after Russia launched its invasion.

Draft Law No. 5144 amended the Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes of Ukraine to introduce the concept of collaboration, which included the direct cooperation and execution of orders from the Russian military, as well as the denial of Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Bill No. 5143 added provisions to Article 111-1 of Ukraine’s Criminal Code that touched on high treason, introducing liability for attempts to organize elections or take positions of power in Russian-occupied territories.