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Ukrainian court hands down prison sentences to two Russians

Right after crossing the border the two men were detained and charged with high treason

KIEV, February 13. /TASS/. A Ukrainian court has handed down a guilty verdict against former Russian servicemen Alexander Baranov and Maxim Odintsov, who the Ukrainian authorities accused of desertion and high treason, attorney Valentin Rybin who represents the two men told TASS.

The Ukrainian security service, the SBU, abducted Baranov and Odintsov in Crimea in November 2016.

UKRAINE CRISIS

"The Kiev court sentenced Odintsov to 14 years in prison and Baranov, to 13 years," Rybin said. "They are being kept in a detention center at present and I am drawing up appeals."

On November 21, 2016, the Russian Defense Ministry said that the SBU had abducted Corporal Maksim Odintsov and First Sergeant Alexander Baranov, both of them servicemen in the Russian Black Sea Fleet. The Ukrainian spy agency had snatched them from Crimea to the Nikolayev region in southern Ukraine.

According to the report, the SBU duped the two men into entering the territory of Ukraine using front men, allegedly "to hand to them the authenticated documents confirming their graduation from a Ukrainian university."

Right after crossing the border the two men were detained and charged with high treason.

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