A court in Rostov-on-Don found a Ukrainian border guard guilty of plotting a terrorist attack

The Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced Ukrainian border guard Denis Storozhuk to 22 years in prison, finding him guilty of plotting a terrorist attack. His accomplice, Valentina Zayarnaya, was sentenced to 12 years.

The Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced Ukrainian border guard Denis Storozhuk and DPR resident Valentina Zayarnaya, finding them guilty of plotting a terrorist attack.

According to investigators, Storozhuk served as the head of the operational-search department of the Donetsk border detachment of the State Border Service of Ukraine. Since February 2022, he had been fighting against Russian armed forces in Mariupol. An officer of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine instructed him to blow up the deputy chairman of the Security and Defense Committee of the People's Council of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), RIA Novosti reported on December 16.

Storozhuk recruited an acquaintance, Zayarnaya, who placed the deputy under surveillance. In March 2023, a Ukrainian intelligence officer sent them IED components. The package was picked up by an intermediary, who reported it to Russian security forces. The agents replaced the package's contents with a fake, which Zayarnaya picked up a few days later and delivered to Storozhuk. The suspects were subsequently detained.

The investigation also established that in May and June 2022, Storozhuk picked up an RPG-19 Mukha anti-tank rocket-propelled grenade, three casings of offensive fragmentation hand grenades, and a high explosive at the Azovstal plant. He hid them at home.

The court found both guilty of plotting a terrorist attack. Storozhuk was sentenced to 22 years in a maximum-security penal colony, and Zayarnaya to 12 years in a general-security penal colony.