The 15-year prison sentence handed down to former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has taken legal effect. The Kyiv Court of Appeal dismissed defense appeals and upheld the ruling of the first-instance court.
This was reported by the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine.
During the appeal proceedings, prosecutors upheld the prosecution’s position, resulting in the verdict of the Podilskyi District Court of Kyiv against the fourth president of Ukraine and the former deputy head of the State Guard Directorate of Ukraine — head of the President’s Security Service — entering into force.
Under the ruling, Yanukovych was sentenced to 15 years in prison for organizing the illegal transfer of persons across Ukraine’s state border and for inciting desertion under Articles 332(2), 27(4) and 408(2) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The sentence was imposed in combination with previous convictions, including a January 24, 2019 ruling by Kyiv’s Obolonskyi District Court that sentenced him to 13 years in prison for high treason and aiding Russia in waging an aggressive war against Ukraine.
The former deputy head of Ukraine’s State Guard Directorate was sentenced to 10 years in prison for organizing the illegal crossing of the state border and for desertion.
Prosecutors proved that on February 23, 2014, Yanukovych, acting in collusion with the former head of the President’s Security Service and with the assistance of representatives of the Russian Federation, illegally crossed Ukraine’s state border by air and organized the transfer of at least 20 members of his close circle and State Guard servicemen.
The flight was carried out outside official border crossing points — using three Russian military helicopters from the outskirts of the village of Urzuf in Donetsk region to a military airfield in Yeysk, Russia, then via Anapa and aboard a Russian military transport aircraft to the “Hvardiiske” airfield in temporarily occupied Crimea.
Yanukovych subsequently decided to permanently leave Ukraine with the assistance of the Russian armed forces. While in Sevastopol, he incited State Guard servicemen responsible for his personal security to desert and relocate to Russia. Some of them left Ukraine with him by sea and never returned to military service.
According to investigators, the route of Yanukovych’s movement across Ukraine and Russia was fully controlled and escorted by Russia’s Federal Protective Service and military personnel of the Southern Military District, and was coordinated directly with the president of the Russian Federation.