The 1st Western District Military Court in St. Petersburg sentenced two Ukrainian citizens, Alexander Maistruk and Eduard Usatenko, in a case involving the bombing and mining of power line supports near nuclear power plants in the Leningrad and Tver regions, reported the press service of the St. Petersburg courts. The court sentenced them to 23 years of imprisonment, the first five years they will spend in prison, the remaining term — in a high-security colony. They were also fined 900 thousand rubles each and ordered to pay damages in the amount of 11 million rubles.
According to the investigation, Maistruk and Usatenko «were part of a sabotage-terrorist group of the Ukrainian Foreign Intelligence Service» and on the eve of the May 9 celebrations attempted to blow up more than 30 power line supports near the Leningrad and Kalinin nuclear power plants to «achieve the shutdown of nuclear reactors».
However, as the security forces stated, they managed to implement their plan only partially: they blew up only one power line support in the Leningrad region, the rest were neutralized. The governor of the Leningrad region reported on the explosion of one of the power line supports in the Gatchina district on May 1, 2023.
The Ukrainians were charged with articles on «undergoing training for sabotage and terrorist activities», smuggling, transporting and storing weapons and explosives, committing a terrorist act and sabotage by a group of persons, as well as attempting to commit sabotage and a terrorist act. Another person involved in the case — 61-year-old citizen of Russia and Ukraine Yuri Kishchak — managed to flee to Belgium, he was declared wanted.
According to the FSB, the men were recruited in 2022 by SVR Lieutenant Colonel Vitaly Gorbatyuk and underwent special training «in camps in the Kyiv and Mykolaiv regions». After that, they traveled to Russia through Belarus.
In a video recorded after their detention, Maistruk and Usatenko repeated the charges' narrative and admitted their guilt in court.
Photo: United Press Service of the St. Petersburg Courts