Two Ukrainian pilots sentenced to 22 years in prison

Two Ukrainian pilots, Oleksandr Morozov and Dmytro Shymansky, were sentenced to terms of up to 26 years in prison in a terrorist attack case. During interrogation, one of them spoke about the Ukrainian Armed Forces' plans to detonate a “dirty bomb” in Russia.

Shymansky was sentenced to 26 years in prison, of which he will spend the first five years in prison and the rest in a maximum-security colony. Pilot from Kharkiv Oleksandr Morozov was sentenced to 22 years in prison, of which he will spend four years in prison, after which he will also be transferred to a maximum-security colony. This is reported by “Mediazona”.

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On Monday, March 3, the 2nd Western District Military Court announced the verdict against two Ukrainian pilots, Dmytro Shymansky and Oleksandr Morozov, who are accused of carrying out terrorist attacks in Russia. The Russian court found them guilty of committing about ten “terrorist crimes.”

The Russians released a video of Morozov and Shymansky on June 6, 2023, the day the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam was blown up. They were then detained by the FSB on suspicion of preparing terrorist attacks. The footage also showed the planes on which Morozov and Shymansky allegedly flew across the Russian border to carry out the mission.

According to the investigation, in the summer of 2023, the pilots were supposed to cross the border of Ukraine with Russia at low altitude on ultralight aircraft and attack the tanks of the Slava oil refinery and the Druzhba oil pipeline in the Bryansk region with aerial bombs, as well as organize a sabotage operation at the Pivchny airfield.

Morozov was eventually detained near the border with Ukraine, and Shymansky's plane flew to the Tula region, where he was also detained. The NTV channel writes that Morozov had previously “managed to drop two bombs with explosives on the territory of the Slava plant”, while he did not cause serious damage.

During interrogation by the FSB, the pilots testified that they had come to Russia to carry out terrorist attacks and damage fuel and energy facilities. One of them also reported on the Ukrainian authorities' plans to use radiological weapons – a “dirty bomb” – on Russian territory. Later, those involved in the case retracted their statements and admitted only part of the accusation.

According to Censor.No, Morozov, for example, did not admit that he participated in the bombing – according to him, he was flying over the territory of Ukraine to check the work of the air defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but accidentally flew into the territory of the Russian Federation.

According to RIA Novosti, one of the defendants was tried under seven articles of the Criminal Code, and the other under ten articles. Among them are organizing a terrorist community (205.4 of the Criminal Code), committing a terrorist act (205 of the Criminal Code), violating the rules of international flights (271 of the Criminal Code), illegally crossing the state border (322 of the Criminal Code), illegally transferring weapons (222 of the Criminal Code), and others. The first court session was held on January 10.

During the debate, the prosecutor asked for 30 years in prison for each of them. The prosecution also demanded that the pilots pay fines: Morozov must pay one million rubles and Shymansky three million rubles. Sotavision reported that the defendants' lawyers, likely appointed by the state, asked for the Ukrainians to be acquitted because they were “prisoners of war who carried out the orders of the Nazis and drug-addicted criminals, who held them captive.”

As Vgorode previously wrote, Oleksandr Morozov is originally from Kharkiv, he is a radio engineer who learned to fly at the age of 50 at a flight school at an aero club. Later, he bought his own light-engine plane and organized a private airfield near Kharkiv. In 2016, he joined the “Civic Air Patrol” initiative, which helped deliver seriously ill patients from the most remote villages to hospitals in the regional center.

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