Former Ukrainian general sentenced to 12 years in prison for treason
Valeri Shaitanov, a former major general in the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), has been sentenced to 12 years in prison after being found guilty of treason, attempted terrorism, and possession of ammunition, Ukrayinska Pravda reports, citing Hotnews.
Shaitanov, the former deputy chief of the SBU's Alpha Special Operations Center, was found guilty of treason, attempted terrorism, and illegal handling of firearms, ammunition, or explosives by the Shevchenkivskyi District Court in Kyiv on August 14.
Shaitanov was sentenced to 12 years in prison with confiscation of property.
He collected information that was a state secret and passed it on to representatives of the Russian Federation.
The investigation established that the official, under the pseudonym Bobyl [a loner], came into contact with an agent named Igor "Elbrus" Egorov, a colonel in the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB). Egorov was involved in the occupation and organization of terrorist activity in Donbas in the summer of 2014, the SBU said.
Acting on the instructions of the Russian intelligence services, Shaitanov sought out people among former SBU military personnel to carry out a terrorist attack.
His target was the assassination of a major in the Armed Forces of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, who led the Djohar Dudaev International Peacekeeping Battalion since February 2015, during the war in eastern Ukraine.
Law enforcement officials warned at the time that the assassination was being planned by the Russian intelligence services.
Criminal proceedings against the FSB Department of Counterintelligence Operations employee who recruited Shaitanov are currently being heard in absentia in court.
