The Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced residents of the Zaporizhzhia region, 32-year-old Oleg Zavhorodniy and 46-year-old Fedor Tryfonov, to 24 and 17 years in prison on charges of preparing to blow up a Russian military convoy, "Mediazona"* reported from the court's press service.
Zavhorodniy was found guilty on five counts: "participation in a terrorist community", "preparation for a terrorist act", "illegal manufacture and circulation of explosives", and "training in terrorist activities". Tryfonov faced the same charges, except for "training in terrorism".
According to the investigation, after the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Zavhorodniy "joined a terrorist community" and underwent "training in methods of making improvised explosive devices, <...> their concealment and setting up caches in the city of Zaporizhzhia". He then proposed Tryfonov to join the same "community". He agreed and acquired components for making explosives in Zaporizhzhia and Melitopol, which "the defendants stored in their home and specially equipped caches".
From these components, the FSB claims, Zavhorodniy and Tryfonov made an explosive device and on November 4, 2022, delivered it to a section of the road where a Russian military convoy was supposed to pass. However, the explosion did not occur as the men were detained by Russian security forces.
Meanwhile, as "Mediazona" discovered, an appellate ruling published on the website of the Lefortovo District Court of Moscow states that the criminal case against the Ukrainians was initiated on January 18, 2023 — on the same day, according to the document, they were detained and sent to a pre-trial detention center. Where they were held from the time of their detention in the Zaporizhzhia region in 2022 is unknown.
As stated in the court documents, Zavhorodniy's defender Pavel Ilchyshyn repeatedly emphasized that the investigation presented no evidence of his guilt in the crimes.
* Recognized as a "foreign agent" in Russia.