Based on the evidence collected by the Security Service, eleven traitors who fought against the Defence Forces on the eastern front have been sentenced to fifteen years in prison, with their property being confiscated.

The perpetrators were captured by Ukrainian defenders during fighting in the Kramatorsk, Pokrovsk, Siversk, Lyman and Novopavlivka sectors in 2024 and 2025.

The investigation revealed that four of them, who were residents of the temporarily occupied part of Donetsk oblast, had joined the armed groupings of russia’s Southern military district.

There, they were incorporated into the 3^rd separate motorised rifle brigade, whose ranks they joined to establish and guard russian firing positions near Bakhmut, Zaitseve, and Vozdvyzhka.

Their units were sent to storm the positions of the Defence Forces near Kleban-Byk, Kucheriiv Yar, and Zolotyi Kolodiaz.

During a counterattack, Ukrainian defenders took the traitors prisoner.

Three more perpetrators, who had been mobilised into russia’s 5^th, 6^th and 123^rd separate motorised rifle brigades, came from the temporarily occupied part of Luhansk oblast.

In 2025, these individuals were involved in ‘meat grinder’ assaults on Ukrainian Armed Forces positions near Spirne, Vozdvyzhenka, and Siversk, but were later captured by Ukrainian troops.

The eighth person convicted is a Crimean resident who joined russia’s 40^th separate marine brigade. As part of the enemy unit, he attacked Ukrainian military positions in the Novopavlivka area, where he was captured by the Defence Forces.

Another resident of the Crimea signed a contract with the russian ministry of defence in 2025 and was subsequently assigned to the 2^nd Taman motorised rifle division.

He took part in russian forces’ attempts to break through towards Svyatogorsk in the Donetsk region. At the time, he was holding a firing position in a ruined building on the outskirts of Novoselivka.

He was captured by Defence Forces alongside other militants in a forest near a frontline village.

Also among those convicted is a Zaporizhzhia oblast resident who signed a contract with russia’s 85^th motorized rifle brigade while in Krasnogorsk, russia.

Near the village of Pazeno in the Siversk sector, his unit was almost completely destroyed, and he was taken prisoner by Ukrainian soldiers as one of the few survivors.

The eleventh traitor was detained in October 2025 near the village of Zatyshok in the Pokrovsk district, Donetsk region. He is a resident of the temporarily occupied part who had become a sniper in russia’s 1^st separate motorised rifle brigade.

Based on the SSU’s investigations, the court found the accused militants guilty under two Articles of the CCU – 111.1, 111.2 (high treason, committed under martial law) and 111-1.7 (collaboration).

The investigations were carried out jointly with investigators from the SSU Office in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and the SSU Office in the Ivano-Frankivsk region under the procedural supervision of regional prosecutor’s offices.