The court sentenced militant Lee Won-chol, a Ukrainian citizen of Korean origin known by the pseudonym Herman Prokopov. He hoisted the Russian flag over the Luhansk Regional State Administration in 2014 and was captured by Ukrainian forces in the fall of 2024.
This was reported by the Luhansk Regional Prosecutorʼs Office.
Law enforcement officers did not specify who exactly they were talking about, but the details of the case suggest that the convicted person is Lee Won-chol.
In April 2014, he organized a rally in support of Russia in the center of Luhansk as one of the leaders of the “Luhansk Guard” organization. Then, with his henchmen, he seized the building of the Security Service of Ukraine in the Luhansk region and installed the flags of Russia and the so-called “LPR” on the roof.
He and his accomplices stole firearms, ammunition, explosives, and devices from the SBU basement. They then seized the buildings of the Luhansk Regional State Administration, the Prosecutorʼs Office, and the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in the Luhansk region, and erected Russian flags on them.
In early May 2014, Lee Won-chol voluntarily joined the illegal armed formation "Cossack National Guard of the All-Great Don Army named after Platov" as a rifleman.
From the summer to October 2014, Lee Won-chol participated in combat clashes with Ukrainian military personnel in the area of the settlements of Stanytsia Luhanska, Mykolaivka, Pionerske in the Luhansk region and near the Luhansk airport.
During the full-scale war, Lee Won-chol, together with the Russian occupiers, captured the cities of Rubizhne, Severodonetsk, and Lysychansk in the Luhansk region, as well as the village of Spirne in the Donetsk region. In the Spirne area in October 2024, Ukrainian fighters defeated a group of occupiers, which included a militant, and he was taken prisoner as the only survivor.
The court found him guilty of participating in the activities of an armed formation not provided for by law, theft of firearms, ammunition, explosives, and explosive devices, committed by a group of individuals in a prior conspiracy, and seizure of state buildings and structures.
Lee Won-chul is already serving his sentence of 8 years in prison. He pleaded guilty.
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