The 2nd Western District Military Court announced the verdict for two Ukrainian servicemen found guilty under the article on 'terrorism' due to the invasion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kursk region, the Investigative Committee reported. Oleksandr Sereda was sentenced to 16 years of imprisonment, Dmytro Pilyai to 15. The first three years of imprisonment they must spend in prison, the rest in a high-security colony.
The Investigative Committee calls the convicted servicemen members of the 11th separate battalion of the 22nd separate mechanized brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which guarantees them prisoner of war status under the Geneva Convention, but the Russian side has a different opinion.
According to the investigation, on August 8, 2024, they illegally crossed the Russian border, and then 'intimidated and terrorized the local population, occupied private homes with the threat of using weapons, obstructed the evacuation of civilians, repeatedly opened fire to kill Russian servicemen and civilians' in the Korenevsky district of the Kursk region. On September 19, they were captured by Russia.
The Investigative Committee's report states that the court found the evidence collected by the investigation sufficient to issue a verdict. At the same time, security forces and regional authorities still cannot determine how many people went missing in the region as a result of the advance of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kursk region. Initially, they reported 517, a few days later they said 'more than two thousand,' exact data is still unavailable.