MOSCOW, December 8. /TASS/. Forty-one defendants from among the former and current political and military leadership of Ukraine face life imprisonment in a criminal case opened in the Russian Federation concerning the genocide of the population of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR), which has been ongoing since 2014.

According to the Russian Prosecutor General's Office, 41 people have been charged in absentia under the article on genocide (Article 357 of the Russian Criminal Code). The penalty under this article envisages imprisonment for a term of 12 to 20 years, involving restriction of liberty for up to two years, or life imprisonment. Charges in this criminal case have been brought against Arsen Avakov, Ivan Bakanov, Andrey Bogdan, Yegor Bozhok, Vladislav Bukharev, Viktor Gvozd, Alexey Goncharuk, Vasily Gritsak, Vladimir Groysman, Alexey Danilov, Alexander Danilyuk, Valery Yevdokimov, Andrey Yermak, Andrey Zagorodnyuk, Valery Zaluzhny, Oleg Ivashchenko, Igor Klimenko, Mikhail Koval, Valery Kondratyuk, Vasily Krutov, Mikhail Kutsyn, Nikolay Litvin, Alexander Litvinenko, Boris Lozhkin, Vasily Malyuk, Denis Monastyrsky, Viktor Muzhenko, Sergey Nayev, Valentin Nalivaichenko, Andrey Paruby, Sergey Pashinsky, Stepan Poltorak, Pyotr Poroshenko, Igor Rainin, Alexander Syrsky, Andrey Taran, Alexander Turchinov, Rustem Umerov, Ruslan Khomchak, Denis Shmygal, and Arseny Yatsenyuk.

The case has been referred to the DPR Supreme Court for consideration on the merits.