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The Krasnogvardeisky District Court of Dnipro (formerly Dnipropetrovsk) sentenced former head of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) Igor Plotnitsky to life imprisonment in absentia for the Il-76 plane tragedy near Lugansk in June 2014. This is reported by UNIAN.
In addition, a guilty verdict was handed down against two commanders of the militia units, Andrei Patrushev and Alexander Gureev.
“Igor Plotnitsky, Andrey Patrushev and Alexander Gureev, accused of shooting down an Il-76 plane with 40 servicemen from the Armed Forces of Ukraine and 9 crew members, were sentenced to life imprisonment,” the Dnipropetrovsk regional prosecutor’s office said in a release.
According to the lawyer for the relatives of those killed in the accident, Vitaly Poghosyan, the judges also heard the claim of 39 victims for compensation for moral damages worth 500 thousand hryvnia each (about 18 thousand US dollars). According to him, the court ruled that the convicted must pay the funds.
The Ukrainian military aircraft Il-76 was shot down on June 14, 2014 in the vicinity of Lugansk, killing nine crew members and 40 paratroopers.
Earlier, Ukraine’s Security Service said there was “irrefutable evidence” of Russia’s involvement in the downing of the Il-76. The decision to shoot down the plane “was made in the Kremlin” and carried out by “an independent unit of the general directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, known as Wagner’s private military company,” the department said.
