Ukrainian court sentences Russian to 15 years in prison for fighting in Donbas
Ruslan Gadzhiev, a Russian citizen who fought for the Luhansk People’s Republic LPR as a tank crew member in the “August Battalion”, was sentenced to 15 years in prison by a court in Ukraine.
The Artyomovsky District Court found him guilty of participating in aggressive warfare, planning an act of terror which led to human deaths, and of committing crimes in collusion with others.
The Russian citizen was sentenced to 15 years in prison and the confiscation of his property.
Gadzhiev arrived in the Donbas in December 2014 and fought in many battles against the Ukrainian army as a tank crew member. He claims that he was arrested in December 2014 in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, for stealing a car. The prosecutors offered to release him if he agreed to repair armored vehicles in Ukraine’s Luhansk province. According to Gadzhiev, 22 of his fellow Russian convicts agreed to go to Ukraine in exchange for release.
This is the second time that Gadzhiev has been sentenced. He was given 15 years by the same court in 2017, but the case was reviewed by the Court of Appeals.