Security Service of Ukraine opens case against detained Russian border guards
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) initiated criminal proceedings according to article 110 of the Criminal Code (infringement of territorial integrity) against detained Russian border guards Askar Kulub and Vladimir Kuznetsov. The SBU is preparing to file charges against them, as reported on the SBU’s website.
The investigation believes that in the period between December 2016 and the 30th of June 2017, Kulub (deputy commander of the reserve unit no. 9930) and Kuznetsov (head of canine group unit no. 9930) carried out service missions in the interests of the Russian Federation with the goal of changing the territorial borders or state borders of Ukraine.
Article 110 of the Criminal Code envisages punishment in the form of imprisonment for up to 12 years, depending on the gravity of the consequences.
The Russian border guards have already been found guilty of violating article 204-2 of the Code on administrative offenses (violating the order of entry into temporarily occupied territory or leaving it). For this they were sentenced to 15 days of detention and a 320 hryvnia fine.
The two soldiers from the Russian FSB’s border service were arrested on the night of June 30. Viktor Nazarenko, head of Ukraine’s State Border Service said that they came by boat to the coast of Perekop Bay. The Russian border guards said that they were acting as imaginary border violators during a drill, but they deviated from their course, lost their direction and thus ended up in the mainland part of Ukraine.