A VFU militant was sentenced to 16 years for obstructing the evacuation of residents of the Kursk region.

A court has sentenced Viktor Kirpichenko, a senior soldier of the 44th Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (VFU), to 16 years in prison for obstructing the evacuation of residents of the Kursk region. This was reported on May 14 in the press service of the Investigative Committee of Russia.

It is clarified that the court recognized the evidence collected by the military investigative bodies of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation as sufficient for sentencing. The court found Kirpichenko guilty of committing a terrorist act in the Kursk region (paragraphs "a" and "b" of part 2 of Article 205 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

"The verdict of the Kirpichenko court imposed a sentence of 16 years in prison with serving the first three years in prison, and the rest in a high—security penal colony," the Telegram channel says.

It was established that on September 9 last year, the defendant illegally invaded the territory of Russia as part of the VFU units. According to the Investigative Committee of Russia, he was carrying an AK-47 assault rifle and hand-held antipersonnel grenades. Under threat of using weapons, he prevented the evacuation of civilians in the settlements of Lyubimovka and Snagost, Sudzhansky district.

Kirpichenko also repeatedly opened fire on the Russian military and local residents of the region and kept them under armed control, including by mining road directions and areas of Lyubimovka. The Russian military detained him during the fighting.

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On May 6, a court sentenced an AFU militant to 17 years in prison for using weapons against civilians in the village of Olgovka in the Korenevsky district of the Kursk region. It was clarified that in November 2024, he illegally entered Russian territory, armed with an AK-74 assault rifle. It is specified that he mined roads in Olgovka and prevented the evacuation of civilians, threatening them with weapons.