A Russian court in the annexed Crimean peninsula sentenced a man to 12 years in prison for filming Russian army sites intended for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Russian news agencies reported on Thursday.
Since sending troops into Ukraine, Moscow has targeted many of its own citizens who it says have aided or supported Kyiv during the two-year conflict.
Follow our information on the war in @Kyivpost_official.
Crimea’s Supreme Court said it had discovered a man born in 1991, a resident of Saky district, “guilty of high treason,” Russian news agencies reported, citing the court’s press service.
Prosecutors said the man had “recorded videos of the operating procedure of an air defense formula and commented on its location with a view to the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” the RIA Novosti news agency reported.
They say he then sent the message to a Ukrainian chatbot created to collect data on Russian military targets.
Russia opened a record number of treason cases in 2023, independent human rights groups say, after tightening legislation and expanding sanctions as part of its offensive against Ukraine.
Ukraine has heavily attacked Crimea, which Moscow annexed from Kyiv in 2014, launching missile and drone attacks on the peninsula since Russia introduced its large-scale military offensive in February 2022.
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