Supreme Court upholds sentence for two Kharkiv residents convicted of passing on military locations, humanitarian aid data
The Supreme Court's Cassation Criminal Court has refused to reconsider the guilty verdict against two Kharkiv residents convicted of passing on precise coordinates of Defense Forces positions and locations where civilians and servicemembers received humanitarian aid.
The defense sought to have the court rulings against them reviewed at the Supreme Court, but prosecutors from the Prosecutor General's Office refuted the arguments raised in the cassation appeals and demonstrated there were no grounds to overturn or change the verdicts, the Prosecutor General's Office said. The Supreme Court agreed with the prosecution's position, leaving the court rulings unchanged and finding that the sentence imposed on each of the convicted — 15 years in prison with confiscation of property — was proportionate to the severity of the crime.
According to the investigation, a 49-year-old Kharkiv woman began communicating in late February 2022 with her former husband, a fighter for the so-called "LNR," and gathering intelligence at his request. Over nearly six months, from February to August 2022, the woman and an acquaintance of hers collected and passed on information with precise coordinates not only of Defense Forces positions but also of a charitable organization distributing food and other humanitarian aid to both servicemembers and the local population. In their communications, they spoke disparagingly of Ukrainian troops and expressed hope for the swift occupation of Kharkiv and the surrounding region by Russian forces.