Bilovodsk District Court in Luhansk region has found one of the leaders of the Rym terrorist group guilty of committing a crime, the press center of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has reported.
“Law enforcers established that this Russian separatist bandit group operated in the temporarily occupied Dovzhansk (formerly known as Sverdlovsk) in Luhansk region in 2014-2015. Its members terrorized the local population and were engaged in smuggling and robbery,” the report says.
According to the special service, one of the group’s leaders declared himself “deputy military commandant of Sverdlovsk.” The separatist-controlled the so-called “Sverdlovsk customs office” and coordinated the activity of groups that moved smuggled goods through the militant-seized Chervonopartyzansk checkpoint on the Russian-Ukrainian border.
“He was in charge of finances in the bandit group and was also engaged in transfer to the territory controlled by the Ukrainian authorities of cars stolen in the occupied part of Luhansk region. The money received from the illegal business was sent to finance the activity of the Rym bandit group,” the ministry said.
Law enforcers established that after the conflict with other terrorist groups, the separatist disappeared from temporarily occupied territories. However, SBU officers detained him in Kyiv, where he was hiding from Ukrainian justice.
The court found the militant guilty of committing a crime under Part 2, Article 260 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine and sentenced him to three years in prison. The verdict came into force.
