MOSCOW, April 26. /TASS/. A Ukrainian national has been sentenced to a 10-year jail term for an attempt to smuggle parts of a Russian S-300 anti-aircraft missile system into Ukraine, the press office of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) told TASS on Monday.
"By the ruling of the Third Appeals Court of General Jurisdiction, the verdict against Ukrainian citizen A.V. Marchenko passed by the Krasnodar Regional Court for committing a crime stipulated by Article 276 of Russia’s Criminal Code (‘Espionage’) has been upheld and has entered into legal force. By the court’s judgment, he has been sentenced to 10 years in a strict security prison," the FSB said in a statement.
In May 2018, Marchenko was assigned a task by Ukrainian Foreign Intelligence Service staffer Pyotr Khomenko to acquire klystrons in Russia - spare parts for S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems and received $163,000 for implementing the criminal intent, the statement says.
"The secret items were expected to be transferred to the Ukrainian Ukroboronservis state arms exporter through an intermediary firm in Macedonia," the FSB press office said.
The court ruled to turn the funds allocated by the Ukrainian Foreign Intelligence Service for the intelligence operation into Russia’s property.
Marchenko was apprehended in April 2019. During the probe, investigators received convincing evidence of his complicity in the Ukrainian intelligence services’ activity aimed at inflicting damage on Russia’s security, which served as the basis for the court’s judgment.