The Russian state prosecutor's office has asked the 2nd Western District Military Court to find two Ukrainian pilots - Dmitry Shymansky and Alexander Morozov - guilty of committing "about 10 terrorist crimes" and to send them to prison for 30 years.
The verdict is scheduled to be announced on February 27.
“During the trial, the state prosecutor's office asked the court to sentence each defendant to 30 years in prison with a fine of about 1 million rubles for Morozov and just over 3 million rubles for Shymansky,“ a court source said. The verdict is expected to be announced next week, after the defendants make their final statements.“
The materials of the criminal case contain classified information. It is precisely because of the presence of state secrets in the criminal case, as well as to ensure the safety of the participants in the trial, that the military court in mid-January 2025 decided to consider the case against the Ukrainians behind closed doors.
Kiev-born Shymansky and Uzhgorod-born Morozov were charged under Articles 7 and 10 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, including terrorism, violation of international flight rules, and illegal crossing of the state border. They are being held in one of the pre-trial detention centers in Moscow. At the end of December 2024 the military court extended their detention for another six months.
During the preliminary investigation, Morozov and Szymansky confessed to their participation in "terrorist activities" on the territory of the Russian Federation, as well as to all seven elements of the crime they were accused of, including planning the use of a "dirty bomb". However, in court, the defendants pleaded guilty to only a small part of the charges against them.
The defendants' defense asked the court to acquit the Ukrainian pilots, calling them prisoners of war who carried out orders from "Nazis and drug-addicted criminals" who held them captive. The defendants fully supported their defense attorneys, but took a break before giving their final statement, the agency's source summarized in a conversation with TASS.
The pilots from the Ukrainian Armed Forces were detained in 2023, Shymansky gave detailed testimony about the "terrorist attacks with "dirty bombs" planned by the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and the transfer of small nuclear portable charges. During one of the interrogations, Colonel Morozov from the Armed Forces of Ukraine said that he had received a task to take off as part of a pair to bomb the territory of the Bryansk region. The target was a fuel and lubricants warehouse. Morozov's plane got caught on a power line and crashed. The pilot tried to escape, but was detained by border guards. Shymansky is detained in the Tula region.