A Russian military court has sentenced 23 Ukrainian soldiers and former service personnel of Ukraine's Azov Brigade to terms of up to 23 years in maximum security.
Eleven of the 23 defendants, including nine women, were tried in absentia, having already been returned to Ukraine in prisoner exchanges. The case initially involved 24 prisoners, but one died in detention.
All 23 were tried on charges including terrorism, as the Azov Brigade was declared a "terrorist and extremist" group by Russia in 2022.
The Azov Brigade has a reputation as one of Ukraine's most formidable fighting formations.
Formed in 2014, the Azov regiment, as it was initially known, emerged from Ukraine's far-right nationalist political scene but has since been integrated into the mainstream army and moved away from its controversial past.
The POWs were also charged with attempting to overthrow Russian rule, despite never having lived in Russia before their capture, the Kyiv Post reported.
Independent Russian media outlet Mediazona reported that the defendants had been brought to court in shackles and claimed during their trial that they had been beaten and tortured in custody.
Most of the prisoners were captured during the brigade's defense of the Avovstal steel plant in the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol early in the war. The battle became an icon of Ukrainian resistance.
Wednesday's verdicts bring the total number of Azov members convicted so far to 145, the Kyiv Post wrote, citing the head of Russia's Investigative Committee.
All 23 were tried on charges including terrorism, as the Azov Brigade was declared a "terrorist and extremist" group by Russia in 2022.
The Azov Brigade has a reputation as one of Ukraine's most formidable fighting formations.
Formed in 2014, the Azov regiment, as it was initially known, emerged from Ukraine's far-right nationalist political scene but has since been integrated into the mainstream army and moved away from its controversial past.
The POWs were also charged with attempting to overthrow Russian rule, despite never having lived in Russia before their capture, the Kyiv Post reported.
The court in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don handed down sentences of between 13 and 23 years in penal colonies with the strictest regimes, the Prosecutor General's office said.The most severe of today's sentences: 23 years for Oleksii Smykov, 28, who served in Azov as a sniper, mortar gunner, machine gunner, radio telephone operator and diver
— Mediazona (@mediazona_en) March 26, 2025
Photo: Alexandra Astakhova / Mediazona pic.twitter.com/h3xs84PuNC
Independent Russian media outlet Mediazona reported that the defendants had been brought to court in shackles and claimed during their trial that they had been beaten and tortured in custody.
Most of the prisoners were captured during the brigade's defense of the Avovstal steel plant in the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol early in the war. The battle became an icon of Ukrainian resistance.
Wednesday's verdicts bring the total number of Azov members convicted so far to 145, the Kyiv Post wrote, citing the head of Russia's Investigative Committee.
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