Russian prosecutors seek long prison terms for Azov Brigade members

Russian prosecutors have requested prison sentences ranging from 16 to 24 years for 23 men and women accused of being members of Ukraine’s Azov Brigade, independent media outlet Mediazona reported on Wednesday.

The prosecutors requested the court in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don hand all 23 defendants custodial sentences, including to eight women who worked as cooks and two soldiers who were exchanged for Russian prisoners in 2022 and who are being tried in absentia as a result. The case against a 24th defendant, Oleksandr Ishchenko, who died in Russian custody last month, was dropped.

All the defendants, who have served in both military and auxiliary roles for the Azov Brigade, a detachment of Ukraine’s National Guard, have been charged with attempting to seize power by force, participation in the activities of a terrorist organisation and undergoing terror training.

Some of the accused were captured during the defence of the now-occupied southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol and its Azovstal plant in the early days of the war, though many were arrested at home after being demobilised, Mediazona reported. Some of the defendants were no longer in military service at the time of the Russian invasion in February 2022 and were detained while attempting to cross into Russia from the occupied regions of Ukraine.

The case against the Azov Brigade was opened in 2022, with all 24 defendants originally being held in occupied Donetsk. The case was transferred to Russian jurisdiction and the city of Rostov-on-Don later the same year.