Former President Viktor Yanukovych received a second sentence in absentia in a Ukrainian court — he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for inciting desertion and organizing illegal crossing of the state border. About this reported Office of the Prosecutor General.
The Podilsky District Court of Kyiv sentenced Yanukovych to 15 years in prison, as well as the former deputy head of the State Security Office of Ukraine – the head of the Security Service of the President of Ukraine, Kostyantyn Kobzar – to 10 years in prison.
Prosecutors of the Maidan Affairs Department asked the court to impose 15 and 10 years of imprisonment, respectively. The court recognized the arguments of the prosecution as well-founded and made a decision on the maximum terms of punishment. During the hearing of the case, prosecutors proved that on February 23, 2014, Yanukovych, in collusion with Kobzar, illegally crossed the state border by air and organized the transportation of at least 20 people from his closest circle and military personnel of the State Security Department.
The flight was carried out bypassing official checkpoints across the state border. Three Russian military helicopters took the group from the outskirts of the village of Urzuf, Mangush district, Donetsk region, to a military airfield in the city of Yeisk in Russia. After a short stay there, they went to Anapa, and from there on a military transport plane provided by the Russian army, they were taken to the military airfield “Gvardiyske” in Crimea.
Later, Yanukovych decided to finally leave Ukraine with the help of the Russian military. While on the territory of the military unit of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation near Cossack Bay in Sevastopol, he incited the UDO servicemen guarding him to desert and leave for Russia. Yanukovych was taken out of Crimea by sea by the Russian military.
Together with the ex-president, part of the state security personnel, who did not return to military service in Ukraine, left for Russia by sea from Sevastopol. The entire transportation route was fully controlled and accompanied by the employees of the Federal Security Service of Russia and the military of the Southern Military District of the Russian Federation, as well as agreed directly with Vladimir Putin.
