The Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don has sentenced four Ukrainian citizens accused in a criminal case of the murder of Arsen Pavlov, the leader of the DPR militant group, known by his call sign Motorola, and the attempted murder of the first head of the DPR group, Oleksandr Zakharchenko. This is reported by Radio Liberty with reference to the Russian media, UNN reports .
Details
Oleksandr Pogorelov was sentenced to life in a special regime colony. Vasily Churilov was sentenced to 13 years in a strict regime colony. According to the investigation, he collected data about Motorola. Oleksandr Tymoshenko was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Artem Yena was sentenced to 17 years in a strict regime colony.
Russian investigators believe that since July 2014, Pogorelov was a member of the SBU's agent network and, together with his friend Oleksandr Tymoshenko, passed information to the Ukrainian special services about the location of military equipment and firing positions of the "DPR" militants.
The investigation also believes that in October 2016, on the instructions of the SBU, Pogorelov planted a bomb on the roof of the elevator in the building where Pavlov (Motorola) lived. The device worked, and Pavlov died.
To organize the assassination attempt, according to the investigation, Pogorelov and Tymoshenko engaged Churilov, who collected data on Pavlov's movements. Artem Yena, according to investigators, collected information about the location of rooms in the Nadiya restaurant and hotel complex, where Motorola temporarily lived.
In August 2017, according to the investigation, Oleksandr Pogorelov placed explosives in the men's room of the Pushkin restaurant in Donetsk, which Zakharchenko entered. The explosion did not take place, as the explosives were found.