Russian court upholds 19.5-year sentence for Ukrainian military intelligence service colonel in treason case

The Russian court of appeal has confirmed the sentencing of Dmytro Shtyblikov, an illegal intelligence colonel for the Ukrainian Defence Ministry, who will now spend 19.5 years behind bars, TASS reports citing the FSB.

The FSB claims that after Crimea was annexed back in 2014 “Shtyblikov remained on the peninsula and received Russian citizenship as instructed by the Ukrainian intelligence service.” He allegedly got employed at a civil position for a Black Sea Fleet military base which he used to hand over top-secret classified information to Kyiv.

In 2017, he was sentenced to five years for “plotting a number of explosions at Crimea’s and the Black Sea Fleet’s civil infrastructure facilities”, the FSB writes. Shtyblikov was later found guilty of high treason and sentenced to 19.5 years behind bars. The verdict came into force today.

RIA Novosti, Russia’s state-owned news agency, brands Shtyblikov “the most high-ranking illegal Ukrainian spy uncovered in Russia.”

On 8 November, a Moscow court arrested Russian citizen G. Vardanyan in a high treason case registered on 7 November. No details are disclosed.