A military court in the Russian Federation sentenced the commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to life in absentia for attacks on Crimea

The Southern Military District Court sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment the commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who led the drone attacks on the Republic of Crimea in 2024-2025, resulting in the deaths of people. This was reported on the website of the Main Military Prosecutor's Office on April 22.

"The court has handed down a verdict in a criminal case against the 48-year—old commander of the 385 separate brigade of marine unmanned special purpose complexes, Captain first rank Alexander Shcheptsov," the statement said.

The court found that in December 2024, as well as in May 2025, Shcheptsov, acting as part of an organized group, with the involvement of subordinate military personnel and the use of unmanned boats with guided missiles, carried out terrorist activities in order to destabilize the work of state authorities of the Russian Federation and intimidate the population. As a result of the strikes on Russian aircraft and locations of military personnel not participating in the special military operation, people were killed and significant damage was caused.

It is specified that the man was found guilty under Part 4 of Article 205.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Organization of a terrorist act committed by a group of persons by prior agreement and causing significant damage").

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On March 27, the Second Western District Military Court sentenced Robert Brovdi, commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine's unmanned aerial systems (included in the Rosfinmonitoring list of terrorists and extremists), accused of a terrorist attack against Russian journalists, to life imprisonment in absentia. According to investigators, in early 2025, he ordered the remote mining of highways and open areas of the Kursk and Belgorod regions, which later led to the death of journalist Anna Prokofieva.