In a controversial move, Ukraine’s Supreme Court overturned the conviction of Viktor Nazarov, the retired military general sentenced to 7 years in prison for negligence that led to the deaths of 49 Ukrainian service members in Donbas in 2014.
On the morning of June 14, 2014, Russian-sponsored militants shot down one of three Ilyushin Il-76 transport planes en route from Dnipro to Luhansk, killing all 40 paratroopers and nine crew members on board.
Two official expert evaluations found that Nazarov, who commanded the operation, knew about surface-to-air missiles in the area but sent the undefended planes regardless.
The decision dashes the victims’ families hopes for justice, said Vitaliy Pogosyan, the Dnipro lawyer who represented them in the trial. He also believes that no other officials will bear the responsibility for other disastrous Ukrainian operations that happened on their watch.
“That is it, there will be no verdicts on Ilovaisk and Debatseve,” Pogosyan said. “Nazarov was found innocent.”
Nazarov served as the chief executive officer with the Anti-Terror Operation (ATO) in Donbas in 2014. He ordered the air bridge mission that was supposed to transport some 150 troops with the 25th Airborne Brigade, plus some vehicles, to reinforce a Ukrainian garrison surrounded by militants at the Luhansk airport.
The three transport planes were nearing their destination when one of them was downed by man-portable surface-to-air Igla missiles. It was Ukraine’s single biggest military loss in Donbas at the time and triggered an uproar across the country, with angry crowds storming the Russian Embassy in Kyiv.
An official inquiry commission later accused the general of negligence. According to the investigation, Nazarov ignored at least two intelligence sources warning that the militants besieging the Luhansk airport had air defense missiles.
Despite being investigated, Nazarov was never suspended. He continued to hold top commanding positions, particularly during the key battles of Ilovaisk and Debaltseve, which resulted in catastrophic setbacks for Ukraine’s military.
During the ensuing trial, the general vehemently denied his guilt, accusing the downed aircraft’s crew of incompetence. He claimed his position as the ATO chief executive officer did not fall under regulations and he could not be held responsible for his decisions.
He never apologized to the killed servicemen’s relatives.
In March 2017, the Pavlohrad District Court found Nazarov guilty and sentenced him to seven years. Relatives of the victims were granted Hr 500,000 ($17,800) from the state budget for each serviceman killed in the operation, which they have not yet received.
The case established a precedent of a high-ranking official brought to justice for incompetent leadership in the war against Russia.
However, the court never stripped Nazarov of his rank. The general appealed his conviction and was released on bail.
The country’s top military and political leaders slammed the verdict, with President Petro Poroshenko decrying a “civilian court sentencing a battlefield general.”
In early 2021, an open letter signed by scores of former U.S. and Ukrainian diplomats, military, and political leaders also backed the general, comparing Nazarov’s sentencing to the Biblical condemnation of Jesus Christ by the crowds of Jerusalem.
Nazarov’s backers stated that the sentence would make military commanders reluctant to give orders for fear of being taken to court for casualties that are inevitable in war.
Read more: Vitaliy Pogosyan: General Nazarov was justly convicted for negligence in war
Several militant leaders, including Ihor Plotnitskiy, Oleksandr Hureyev, and Andriy Patrushev, were sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia in March 2021 for their role in the destruction of the Il-76.
Nazarov continued serving at top positions and was honorably discharged in the rank of Lieutenant General at his own request in 2019.
The court of appeals upheld his sentence in late 2020, paving the way for the retired general’s eventual imprisonment.
The Supreme Court has overturned that decision.
