A court in the Russian Federation sentenced a captured Ukrainian to 18 years because of his service in Azov.

In Rostov-on-Don, the Southern District Military Court sentenced captive Ukrainian citizen Vladislav Plakhotnik to 18 years in a maximum security colony. He was accused of serving in the Ukrainian Azov battalion, declared terrorist in Russia, Kavkaz.Realii reports.

The court found Plakhotnik guilty on charges of participation in a terrorist organization and undergoing training to carry out terrorist activities. The Ukrainian must serve the first three years of his sentence in prison.

The Southern District Military Court continues to consider cases against captured citizens of Ukraine. These trials are a violation of international law and part of Russia’s political strategy against Ukraine, indicated experts interviewed by the website Kavkaz.Realii.

• The Azov regiment held the defense at the Azovstal plant in Mariupol for almost two months in the spring of 2022. In May, the defenders of Azovstal—more than a thousand people—surrendered.
• The Azov regiment was created in 2014 as a volunteer formation; its origins were activists of extreme right-wing views. In 2015, the US Congress prohibited him from providing military assistance due to alleged ties to neo-Nazis. Now “Azov” is an integral part of the armed forces of Ukraine.
• In Russia, the Supreme Court recognized the regiment as a terrorist organization and banned it. Also, “Azov” is regularly used by Russian propaganda to prove Ukraine’s support for neo-Nazism at the state level.
• On June 16, the Southern District Military Court began to consider the case against 24 former alleged members of the Ukrainian Azov regiment. They are charged with participation in a terrorist organization, as well as an attempt to forcibly seize power in the territory of the so-called “DPR”. How found out Kavkaz.Realii website, the case involves both participants in the defense of Azovstal in Mariupol, and those who served in the regiment several years before the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukrainian territory.

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