Three ex-employees of the State Space Agency of Ukraine are sentenced in absentia to 15 years for cooperation with Russia in Crimea

The Korolevsky District Court of Zhytomyr has sentenced three local residents, former employees of the State Space Agency, to 15 years in prison in absentia for collaborating with Russia in annexed Crimea.

According to SBU spokesperson Iryna Martyniuk, the convicts are graduates of the Zhytomyr Higher Military Educational Institution. In the 2000s, all three were sent to one of the centers of the State Space Agency of Ukraine in Crimea, where they served. However, after Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, the officers betrayed their military oath of allegiance to the Ukrainian people and defected to Russia.

"Having accepted its citizenship, the officers put on Russian uniforms and became accomplices in Russia's open armed aggression against Ukraine. Currently, the traitors with pseudo-colonel and major ranks are serving in the military unit of the Russian Aerospace Forces in Vityn, Crimea, from where the Russians control GLONASS satellites. Russian troops use the data obtained through these satellites to guide Russian missiles and UAVs to targets in Ukraine," emphasized Martyniuk.

Based on the SBU evidence, the officers were found guilty of high treason and desertion. The court verdict has entered into force, and the sentence will begin from the moment the convicts are detained. By order of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, they were stripped of their officer ranks and dismissed from service.

Earlier, the first suspicion was made against a Russian archaeologist for a crime against Ukrainian cultural heritage in Crimea. It has now been established that only one archaeological heritage site, in the period 2014-2019, has suffered damage worth more than UAH 200 million. The name of the first archaeologist who was suspected of a crime against Ukrainian cultural heritage in Crimea has not yet been named.

Earlier it was reported that this summer, two fires occurred on the territory ofthe Scythian Naples reserve in Simferopol in June and August, causing significant damage to the archaeological site.

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