(Denis Berezovsky, former commander of the Navy. PHOTO: ua.krymr.com)
Denis Berezovsky, the former commander of the Ukrainian Navy, was sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison for treason. The court found that during the occupation of Crimea, he ordered Ukrainian military personnel to surrender their weapons, not to resist Russian troops, and to come under their command.
The Center for Public Investigations examined the details of the case.
According to the October 9 verdict of the Dniprovskyi District Court of Kyiv, in March 2014, Berezovsky refused to carry out orders from the Ukrainian military leadership and began acting in the interests of the Russian military.
Representatives of the Ukrainian military command testified in court that Berezovsky urged servicemembers to surrender their weapons in the event that military bases were blockaded. Additionally, according to testimony, he ordered commanders of Ukrainian units in Crimea to lay down their arms and surrender to Russian troops. According to the case file, he ordered the abandonment of the airfield in Kirovsk and failed to carry out the order to move Ukrainian ships out to the roadstead.
The court reviewed video recordings of Berezovsky’s speeches, in which he swore allegiance to the residents of Crimea and Sevastopol and called on Ukrainian military personnel to come under Russian command. However, the defense denied that a crime had been committed, but the judge found the evidence gathered to be sufficient to prove the defendant’s guilt.
Additionally, former Lieutenant Colonel Oleksiy Popov from Crimea was convicted of treason and desertion. Following the occupation, he failed to report to Mykolaiv with his Ukrainian Armed Forces unit and subsequently began serving in the Russian army.
Анна Літман