The Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced to terms ranging from 12 years to life imprisonment four Ukrainian citizens accused of espionage, promoting terrorism and the murder of the commander of the Sparta battalion of the self-proclaimed DPR Arsen Pavlov, known by his nickname Motorola . Mediazona was informed about this by the press service of the court.
A life sentence in a special regime colony was given to Alexander Pogorelov. Artem Yena received 17 years in a maximum security colony, Vasily Churilov — 13 years, Alexander Timoshenko — 12 years. The latter was taken into custody in the courtroom.
According to the investigation, cited by Kommersant, in July 2014, Pogorelov noticed the Grad MLRS from the window of his apartment in Donetsk and reported this to the SBU. Later, he repeatedly transmitted information to the Ukrainian special service and carried out its tasks — for example, he helped the Ukrainian Armed Forces escape from captivity, investigators say. Twice Pogorelov informed the SBU that it was undesirable to shell certain military targets because they were too close to residential buildings.
In October 2016, Pogorelov met in Donetsk with Polish citizen Zygmunt Machchinsky and entered with him into the entrance of the house where Motorola lived. The men took the elevator up several floors, after which Pogorelov installed an explosive device on the roof of the elevator, which was in Makhchinsky’s bag.
Later, the men left the house, and Makhchinsky remotely activated the bomb — the explosion killed Pavlov and the commander of the reconnaissance department of the reconnaissance company, Yevgeny Gadlia, the case file says.
In December 2016, investigators claim, Pogorelov planted explosives in the sauna of the Nadezhda Hotel in Makeyevka to kill high-ranking DPR military officer Alexei Vydrin, who was a frequent visitor there. The bomb was found before it was activated.
The investigation also names Pogorelov as involved in preparing an attack on the first head of the self-proclaimed republic, Alexander Zakharchenko, in August 2017. Then he planted a bomb in the toilet of the Pushkin restaurant; it failed to detonate and was found by security forces in December.
Pogorelov was charged with eight criminal articles — on espionage and preparation for it, encroachment on the life of a statesman, training for the purpose of terrorism, illegal acquisition of explosives, attempted participation in a terrorist society and the commission of two terrorist attacks. In court, he said that he was tortured by Russian security forces.
Kommersant calls the rest of the convicted persons Pogorelov's accomplices. Artem Yena was found guilty of assistance to terrorism, Tymoshenko — in espionage and preparation for it, Churilova — in participation in a terrorist community and two episodes of promoting terrorism.
Motorola died in 2016 when an elevator exploded in a Donetsk residential building. The authorities of the self-proclaimed republic considered this a violation of the truce and a “declaration of war” on the part of Kyiv. According to the SBU, Pavlov was involved in torture and murder of people. In 2022, Vladimir Putin posthumously awarded him the Order of Courage.
DPR commander Motorola killed