Pair sentenced to 14 years in jail but are likely to be swapped for Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko

Two Russian soldiers captured in east Ukraine have been convicted of terrorism by a court in Kiev and sentenced to 14 years in jail. The defence lawyer for one of the men was murdered during the trial.

The verdict, reached by a panel of three judges, said Sgt Aleksander Aleksandrov and Capt Yevgeny Yerofeyev were guilty of participating in “an aggressive war” against Ukraine and committing “a terrorist attack”. It also found that they were serving soldiers in the Russian army’s GRU intelligence wing.

The two men are unlikely to serve their full sentence. It is widely expected that they will be returned to Russia in the near future as part of an exchange for Nadiya Savchenko, a Ukrainian pilot and volunteer fighter.

The two Russians initially admitted to being serving officers at the time of their capture, but later went back on their testimony and insisted they had left the army and travelled to Ukraine as volunteers.



The pair were captured in Luhansk region in May 2015. Russia has denied any military involvement in the east Ukraine conflict, despite overwhelming evidence that it has backed the separatist movement financially and logistically, and provided direct military support at crucial moments.

When Russian soldiers and equipment have been seen or captured in Ukraine, the Kremlin has on various occasions denied their presence, claimed they got lost or said they were volunteers. In December, Vladimir Putin admitted for the first time that Russia had “people there who carried out certain tasks including in the military sphere”, but said this was not the same as regular troops.

However, while few in Ukraine doubt that Yerofeyev and Aleksandrov were sent to Ukraine rather than volunteered, the case has been mired in controversy.

In March Aleksandrov’s defence lawyer, Yuri Grabovsky, was kidnapped, drugged, forced to make a video saying it had been a mistake to take on the case, and killed. In April the Kiev office of the judge hearing the case was attacked by arsonists. Various theories have swirled as to who might be behind the attacks.

Savchenko’s relatives and Russian defence lawyer Ilya Novikov were in court in Kiev. Novikov told reporters afterwards that an exchange deal between Russia and Ukraine to swap the two soldiers for Savchenko, who is currently on hunger strike, could happen quickly.

Last month Savchenko was jailed for 22 years by a court in southern Russia, after a long case that was criticised as flawed and politicised. She was accused of directing an artillery attack during the east Ukraine conflict that killed two Russian journalists. Her lawyers said there was clear evidence that she had already been captured at the time the attack took place.