Russia has sentenced a captured the GUR special officer to 20 years

The Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don (Russian Federation) sentenced a prisoner of war soldier of the Main Intelligence Directorate (known as GUR) of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine to 20 years in prison. Presumably, itʼs about Oleksandr Lyubas, who was captured during an attempt to land in Crimea in October 2023.

This was reported by the Russian state agency TASS with reference to the statement of the representative of the court.

The Russian court accused the Ukrainian of allegedly illegally crossing the border of the Russian Federation, storage and smuggling of weapons, terrorist attacks and training for the purpose of terrorist activities.

Ukraine has not yet commented on the courtʼs decision.

What preceded

In October last year, intelligence reported that Ukrainian special forces had again landed on the territory of Crimea and hit the occupiers. The video of the raid ends with footage of fighters holding a Ukrainian flag and saying: "Crimea will be Ukrainian or deserted."

Later, the head of GUR Kyrylo Budanov confirmed that during the operation, a fighter named Oleksandr Lyubas was captured by the Russians.