Russia convicts captured Ukrainians on ‘terrorism’ charges

A court in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don has convicted 23 Ukrainians on “terrorism” charges in a trial that Kyiv has denounced as a sham and a violation of international law.

The defendants include 12 captured members of Ukraine’s elite Azov Brigade, which led the defence of the city of Mariupol in the early months of Russia’s war.

The prisoners were found guilty on Wednesday on charges of trying to stage a violent coup and organising activities for a “terrorist” organisation. Some also faced charges of overseeing illegal military drills as part of the ongoing war in Ukraine.

They were given sentences ranging from 13 to 23 years in prison, to be served in penal colonies with the harshest regimes, the Prosecutor-General’s Office said.

Independent news outlet Mediazona said that besides the 12 Avoz members, 11 other people whom Russia had already returned to Ukraine in prisoner exchanges were sentenced in absentia. They included nine women who had worked as army cooks.

Mediazona said the Azov members would appeal the verdicts and that some of them had denied wrongdoing or had said that testimony they had given had been obtained under duress.

Wednesday’s verdict comes a day after Russia and Ukraine agreed to halt military strikes on vessels in the Black Sea with a view to ushering in a broader ceasefire that would bring an end to the three-year Russia-Ukraine war.

‘Sham trial’

Memorial, a prominent Russian rights group that won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022, has designated the Ukrainian defendants as political prisoners.

According to Memorial, some of them were captured in 2022 during fighting in Mariupol, where they held out at the Azovstal steel mill, besieged by Russian troops.

Others were detained as they tried to leave the city after it was overrun by Russian forces, the group said.

The Ukrainian parliament’s human rights commissioner, Dmytro Lubinets, denounced the proceedings when they began in June 2023 as “another sham trial” held for Russia’s “own amusement”.

“Russia and fair justice have nothing in common. The world must respond to such shameful sham trials of Ukrainian defenders,” Lubinets said.

He added: “It is obvious to everyone that those who should be in the dock are not those defending themselves but those who initiated the aggression, those who invaded foreign land with weapons and those who arrived with tanks on the territory of an independent state.”

The Azov Brigade is banned inside Russia and is characterised by Moscow as a fanatical grouping of Russia-hating neo-Nazis. Ukraine rejects Russia’s description of Azov as a “terrorist” organisation.

The regiment was founded by a hardline nationalist, Andriy Biletskiy, but subsequently dissociated itself from his politics. From 2014, it was folded into Ukraine’s National Guard.