The Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don received a case of five residents of Melitopol, accused of organizing a «terrorist underground» in the Russian-occupied part of the Zaporozhye region. This was reported to Kommersant in court.
According to the FSB, five residents of Melitopol — UAF contract soldier Igor Gorlov, territorial defense servicemen Vladimir Zuev, Andrei Golubev and Alexander Zhukov, and retired military officer Yuri Petrov — planned to blow up a ZAZ-1102 car near a humanitarian aid distribution point. In addition, according to the security forces, the men were going to throw anti-tank grenades at the equipment guarding the Russian military.
All five, according to the prosecution, were members of the «Union of participants ATO of Melitopol», headed by Vladimir Minko. Minko himself, according to the FSB, being in Zaporozhye free from occupation, led the group. Gorlov, Zuev, Golubev, Zhukov and Petrov are charged with participation in a terrorist community (Part 2 of Article 205.4 of the Criminal Code) and preparation for an act of international terrorism (Part 1 of Article 30, Part 1 of Article 361 of the Criminal Code).
The men were detained in April last year and taken to the Crimea, where they were arrested by the Kyiv Court of Simferopol. Later, the Melitopol residents were sent to the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center in Moscow. According to Kommersant, at first they partially admitted their guilt, but soon retracted their testimony.