The court sentenced the colonel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to life imprisonment in absentia.

The Second Western District Military Court has handed down a life sentence in absentia against Colonel Alexei Zakharchuk, commander of the 39th Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU). This was announced on April 4 by the press service of the Main Military Prosecutor's Office of Russia.

"The court found that in June last year, Zakharchuk, acting as part of an organized group led by representatives of the highest military and political leadership of Ukraine, carried out terrorist activities in order to intimidate the civilian population and destabilize the activities of state authorities of the Russian Federation," the agency wrote on its website.

He was found guilty under Part 3 of Article 205 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("A terrorist act committed by an organized group that caused death to a person, significant property damage and other grave consequences").

It is noted that on the orders of Zakharchuk, a Su-27 fighter equipped with bomb weapons carried out a terrorist attack on the location of the Russian military in the Belgorod region.

"Since Zakharchuk escaped from the investigation and the court outside the Russian Federation, he has been put on the international wanted list, and a preventive measure in the form of detention has been chosen for him in absentia," the department added.

Zakharchuk was sentenced to life imprisonment with serving the first five years in prison, the rest in a correctional colony of a special regime, adds "Газета.Ru ".

To inflict punishment: Putin called for investigating the crimes of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kursk region

The allocation of assistance to affected citizens should also be under the control of prosecutors, the president said.

Earlier, on April 3, a court sentenced four servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to 15 and 16 years in prison for committing a terrorist act in the Kursk region. According to the Prosecutor General's Office, in early October 2024, militants invaded the territory of the Glushkovsky district of the Kursk region and proceeded towards the village of Veseloe in order to block it and carry out terrorist activities.