Viktor Ageev, a Russian soldier captured in Ukraine last summer, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after being found guilty on charges of terrorism, his lawyer reported on Facebook late on Jan. 25.
Ageev was sentenced by Novoaidarsky District Court in Luhansk Oblast his lawyer, Viktor Chevguz said.
According to Chevguz, Ukraine charged Ageev with fighting for Russian-backed separatists – the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic, which has been declared a terrorist organization in Ukraine, and with illegal possession of firearms.
Chevguz said that 10 years was an “overly severe” punishment for Ageev, and said that his defense intends to appeal against both the form of the charges and the length of sentence.
“We’ll question this sentence,” Chevguz said.
The Ukrainian military detained Ageev near Luhansk in June 2017. The Ukrainian Security Service, or SBU, say he is a Russian serviceman who joined the LPR forces in March 2017, and served as a machine gunner.
Ageev admitted to this in the Ukrainian court; he’s currently in a pre-detention cell in Starobilsk, about 100 kilometers northern from Luhansk.
The Russian Defense Ministry, however, has denied that Ageev was a Russian soldier when he was captured in Ukraine. Russia’s official position is that Ageev did serve in the Russian army, but left in 2016.
The Russian Defense Ministry claims Ukraine’s version of Ageev’s story is “made up by Ukrainian propagandists.”
