Ukrainian sentenced to 25 years in prison in Russia for alleged railway arson

Ukrainian citizen Serhii Karmazin has been fined and sentenced to 25 years in prison by Russia’s 2nd Western District Military Court for arson on a railway in Moscow Oblast.

Source: Solidarity Zone, a human rights project; Radio Liberty

Details: The verdict was handed down on 28 March, but the Russian court’s press office did not report it. Karmazin told one of Solidarity Zone’s subscribers about the judgment in a letter.

He will spend the first six years of his term in prison and serve the remaining 19 years in a special-regime penal colony. The Ukrainian must also pay a fine of RUB 700,000 (about US$7,700).

The 46-year-old, who is from Kharkiv Oblast, was found guilty of espionage, training people in sabotage and terrorist activities, preparation for the manufacture of explosives, preparation for acts of terrorism, and participation in sabotage and terrorist communities. Karmazin has appealed the verdict.

Serhii Karmazin was detained in February 2023. According to the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), he set fire to railway equipment on the stretch between the Kutuzovskaya and Vesennyaya stations in Moscow Oblast.

Following Karmazin's arrest, the security service posted a video in which a man whose face is not visible identifies himself as a native of Kharkiv Oblast. He claims that in November 2022, he went to work in Poland, where he was allegedly recruited by Polish intelligence and the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU). After that, he allegedly went to Latvia, and from there local security services sent him to Russia, posing as a refugee. In the video, the man claims that he was forced to comply with the SSU’s demands because its officers had allegedly threatened his daughter, who lives in Vinnytsia.

Initially Karmazin was only charged with sabotage. The court placed him in pre-trial detention and would not allow a lawyer from Solidarity Zone to visit him.

The SSU denies working with Karmazin, saying that he is on the list of prisoners of war and persons illegally deprived of liberty as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Background: Arson attacks on Russia’s railway infrastructure began after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. To begin with, the accused were tried for hooliganism, but later they were charged with sabotage. In most cases, the investigators allege that the arsonists were acting on orders from the Ukrainian intelligence services.

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