Ukraine convicts Russian agents captured on Ukrainian territory

A Kyiv court convicted on April 18 Russian military intelligence agents Yevgeny Yerofeyev and Aleksandr Aleksandrov of engaging in premeditated warfare, supporting terrorist organizations, executing a terrorist attack and using firearms to provoke warfare. They were each sentenced to 14 years imprisonment and confiscation of their property. The two agents were arrested on May 2015 in among the most active conflict zones of the Luhansk region.

Zenon Zawada: Interestingly, the Ukrainian government has embraced the cause of Nadiya Savchenko, who was captured by the Russian-backed forces when she was fighting with volunteers, not as part of the official Ukrainian army. On the other hand, the Russian government found it convenient to wash its hands of these two soldiers, who had official status at the time of their arrest but were alleged by their government to have been discharged beforehand.

The Russian military has created the appearance that it doesn’t consider them to be valuable assets, nor does it seem very much concerned about their fates. So their convictions won’t necessarily affect the course of negotiations for Ukrainian prisoners, most notably in the global community’s attempts to free Savchenko. Of equal significance is the Ukrainian government’s ability to impose criminal convictions when it wants to and needs to, which speaks volumes about the failure to pursue other far more important convictions.