ROSTOV-ON-DON, March 26. /TASS/. The Southern District Military Court has sentenced to 18 years of imprisonment Sergey Potyng, an engineer at the thermal instrumentation and control shop of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), accused of attempting to murder employees of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a source in the court told TASS.
"The court has found Potyng guilty, he is sentenced to 18 years of imprisonment with a fine of 700,000 rubles, with serving the first 3 years in prison, and the rest of the term in a maximum-security correctional camp," the source said.
According to the investigation, Potyng joined a terrorist community created by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry's Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) in March 2023. Acting on instructions from his handler, he conducted surveillance on vehicles with access to the ZNPP to subsequently carry out an explosion in the territory of the plant, planning to inflict the maximum amount of damage, including to cause the deaths of IAEA employees present at the ZNPP, aiming to discredit Russia before the international community and for Ukraine to receive assistance and financial support from the West in hostilities against Russia.
Using the Threema messenger, he received details from the handler about a cache with an explosive device containing up to 1 kilogram of TNT, which he retrieved and stored in his apartment in Energodar. In May 2023, he planted the device under the rear right side of a Hyundai IX 35, but the plot was thwarted when the explosives were discovered. In December 2023, Potyng was detained by law enforcement officers. He is charged with crimes under part 2 of Article 205.4 (participation in a terrorist community) of the Russian Criminal Code, part 3 of Article 30, section A and B of part 3 of Article 205 (attempted terrorist act), and part 4 of Article 222.1 (illegal acquisition of explosives and explosive devices) of the Russian Criminal Code.