The SSU is working systematically to expose, detain and prosecute members of IAFs for crimes against Ukraine’s state security.

In Dnipro, court’s verdict has entered into force on the fact of a terrorist act - shooting down of an IL-76 military transport aircraft of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. As a result of missile hitting the plane, it caught fire and was destroyed, killing nine crew members and forty servicemen.

The examination of the evidence collected by the SSU within the pre-trial investigation lasted 5 years.

The panel of judges of Krasnogvardeyskyi District Court, after an objective and impartial review of the circumstances and evidence, passed the final decision convicting the organizers of the terrorist act and those involved in it.

Finally, after a year-long consideration of the appeal, three terrorists were sentenced for the deaths of Ukrainian servicemen.

The SSU investigators have obtained indisputable evidence that the so-called head of the LNR terrorist organization I.Plotnytskyi, who at the time of the crime commanded the IAF Zorya Battalion, along with A.Patrushev (his deputy at the time) and O.Gureyev, commander of the IAF Vityaz, were direct organizers of the attack. To stop the ATO forces, they commanded groups of militants armed with MANPADS, who set up ambushes and blocked the Luhansk airport.

Based on the evidence, the organizer and the individuals involved in the terrorist act were found guilty under the Articles of the CCU:

• 260.2 (creation of unlawful paramilitary or armed formations);
• 258.3 (terrorist act);
• 437.2 (planning, preparation, initiation and waging of aggressive war).

All three terrorists were sentenced to life imprisonment.