Russia Sentences Heavy Sentences to Two Men in Crimea for ‘Treason’

Russia on Friday sentenced two people in annexed Crimea to 14 and 16 years in prison on charges of treason, accusing them of working in Kiev’s security services.

Moscow has regularly convicted people in Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014 and attacked Ukraine in 2022, for allegedly working for Kiev.

A court in Crimea sentenced a man accused of passing information about the Russian army to Kiev to 16 years in prison on charges of treason.

TASS news agency published footage of a bald man being brought to court and announced that he was 53-year-old Sevastopol resident Nikolai Lozenko.

Kiev security services recruited him in 2017 in the eastern Ukrainian city of Melitopol – currently under Russian control – and sent images of Russian forces to Ukrainian services in 2022, the FSB security service said.

According to TASS, Lozenko is a former Ukrainian pilot.

Russia also said it had sentenced an unnamed man in Crimea to 14 years in prison for treason, accusing him of trying to kill a Russian soldier in the town of Dzankoi in northern Crimea.

Russian news agencies said that the 62-year-old person placed explosives under the car of a Russian soldier in September 2023, but the attack was prevented by the FSB.