A Russian military court has sentenced 15 members of the Ukrainian Aidar Battalion to 15 to 21 years in prison for participating in what Moscow labeled a “terrorist organization,” according to the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office.
The prisoners, captured in 2022, will serve their sentences in high-security Russian facilities. The trial was closed to the public and conducted in a military court in Rostov-on-Don, a southern Russian city.
“The accusations relate to activities between August 2014 and March 2022. They were charged with participation in a banned terrorist group and actions aimed at the ‘violent seizure of power and overthrow of the constitutional order of the Russian Federation,’” the report stated.
No official response has yet come from Ukraine regarding the sentences. Previously, Ukraine’s Ombudsman described the trial as “shameful.”
Human rights groups, including Russia’s Memorial, have argued that prosecuting these individuals violates the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of prisoners of war. Russia has rejected this claim, asserting that the charges pertain to activities predating the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and that the accused were not charged with war crimes.
The Aidar Battalion was one of dozens of volunteer units formed in Ukraine following the 2014 conflict with Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. While some of these battalions had far-right affiliations, they were later integrated into the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
According to Russian news agency Mash, two of the defendants have pled guilty, while the remaining 13 plan to appeal the verdict.
