Yanukovych finally got 15 years in prison: the Prosecutor General told how the former president escaped
Viktor Yanukovych (Photo: EPA)

The former president of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych was sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison in the case of his escape to Russia. About this reported The Office of the Prosecutor General (OPG).

The second verdict against the former president came into force after the Kyiv Court of Appeal dismissed the defense's complaints and upheld the decision of the previous court.

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As a result, Yanukovych was sentenced to 15 years in prison for organizing the illegal transportation of persons across the state border of Ukraine and inciting desertion.

The sentence was imposed on the basis of the totality of the crimes committed, in particular, high treason and aiding and abetting Russia in its aggressive war against Ukraine – for this, the former president was sentenced to 13 years in prison in absentia in 2019.

A former deputy head of the State Protection Department was also sentenced to 10 years in prison for organizing illegal border smuggling and desertion. It is the then head of the presidential Security Service Konstantin Kobzar.

Prosecutors managed to prove in court that on February 23, 2014, the former president, acting in collusion with the head of his Security Service and with the assistance of Russian representatives, illegally crossed the border by air and organized the escape of at least 20 people from his inner circle and the military of the State Protection Department, the OPG notes.

"The flight was carried out outside the state border crossing points for air traffic. The convicts flew in three Russian military helicopters piloted by a pilot of the Russian Armed Forces from the outskirts of the village of Urzuf, Mangush district, Donetsk region, to the military airfield in the city of Yeysk (RF). Later, the route passed through the city of Anapa, and then on a military transport aircraft provided by the Russian Armed Forces to the Hvardiyske military airfield in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea," the statement said.

Later, the Prosecutor General's Office adds, the former president decided to finally leave Ukraine with the assistance of the Russian Armed Forces: while on the territory of the military unit of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in the Kozacha Bay area of Sevastopol, the former head of state incited the parole officers who provided his personal security to desert and leave for Russia.

"As a result, some of the state security officers left Sevastopol for Russia with him by sea and never returned to military service," the agency added.

They also emphasized that the route of the fugitive ex-president's movement in Ukraine and Russia was fully controlled and accompanied by the Federal Security Service and the military of the Southern Military District of the Russian Federation and was agreed directly with the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.