Russians sentence nine Mariupol defenders in Donetsk

The Mariupol City Council announced this on Telegram, Ukrinform reports.

“In the occupied Donetsk, the so-called ‘DPR court’ sentenced nine Ukrainian Armed Forces servicemen,” the statement says.

The city council noted that the Russians accused the defenders of shelling the village of Staryi Krym in Mariupol in March 2022 and handed down sentences ranging from 24 years to life imprisonment.

Nine soldiers from the 36th Separate Marine Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces - Andriy Shestak, Nazariy Moroz, Vladyslav Yavorskyi, Vadym Shulha, Serhiy Yampolskyi, Maksym Kolbasin, Dmytro Shalara, Volodymyr Penzin and Kostiantyn Romaniuk - were sentenced to prison terms.

All of them defended Mariupol from the Russian occupiers, were on the territory of the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works and then taken prisoners by Russia.

The Mariupol defenders will serve the sentences in a strict regime penal colony.

As Ukrinform reported, in early December 2023, the Russian invaders fabricated cases and sentenced 11 Ukrainian defenders of Mariupol to an average of 25 years in prison.