Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was sentenced today by a Kiev court to 15 years in prison for illegal border crossing and incitement to desertion, Ukrinform reported, BTA reports.
„The Podilskyi District Court sentenced former President Viktor Yanukovych to 15 years in prison in a case of illegal border crossing and incitement to desertion. In addition, the court sentenced Kostyantyn Kobzar to 10 years in prison – "then deputy head of the State Guard and head of the Presidential Security Service," said Denis Ivanov, prosecutor in the Maidan cases.
According to the prosecutor's office, the imposed sentences correspond to the sentences requested by the prosecution.
“The court accepted the arguments of the prosecutor's office, found that the charges were well-founded and proven, and imposed the maximum sentences provided for by law,“ Ivanov added.
In June 2022, the State Bureau of Investigation filed an indictment against Yanukovych and Kobzar with the court. The two were accused of incitement and desertion, as well as of illegally transferring persons across the state border of Ukraine.
The investigation found that on February 23, 2014, at about 1:30 a.m. Viktor Yanukovych, together with his security guards and other individuals, illegally transferred at least 20 people across the border using three helicopters of the Russian Armed Forces that took off from the village of Urzuf in the Donetsk region to Russia.
On February 24, 2014, while at a military facility of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in the Gagarin district of Sevastopol, Yanukovych incited the head of his security service to desert. Subsequently, Kostyantyn Kobzar left military service and, with the help of Russian security forces, left Ukrainian territory by sea together with the former president and several other individuals, without returning to his military duties, Ukrinform recalls.