The 2nd Western District Military Court sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment the commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) Nikolai Dzyaman (listed by Rosfinmonitoring as a terrorist and extremist), who ordered the shooting down of the Russian Il-76 with captured Ukrainians on board in 2024. This is reported by .
According to the court decision, more than 4 billion rubles will be recovered from the commander of the 138th anti-aircraft missile brigade of the Vostok Air Command for damages. The colonel was convicted of committing a terrorist act.
According to the investigation, on May 13, 2023, on orders from Dzyaman, fighters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine secretly deployed the Patriot air defense system in the area of the village of Berezovaya Gat, Chernihiv region. Then, under the personal leadership of the colonel, a targeted launch hit planes and helicopters in Russian airspace.
As a result of the attack, two Mi-8 helicopters, a Su-34 front-line bomber and a Su-35 fighter crashed. Nine crew members suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
At the beginning of the year, Dzyaman was sentenced to life in prison in the Russian Federation in the destruction of another plane.
A plane carrying Ukrainian prisoners was shot down in 2024 in the Belgorod region. There were 74 people on board: 65 Ukrainian soldiers, 3 accompanying officers of the Russian Armed Forces and crew members. None of them survived.
