(Reuters) – A Russian court sentenced two defendants to three-and-a-half years in a strict regime colony for plotting to sabotage the railway in a region bordering Ukraine, the first convictions for sabotage since Russia’s invasion, media reported on Tuesday.
“According to the criminal intent, such actions would have led to derailment, damage to military and railway equipment, casualties among servicemen,” Russia’s state-run TASS news agency cited an unidentified source at the court in the Belgorod region as saying.
TASS identified the two by their last names but gave no more details about them.
Their convictions were the first based on the “Sabotage” Article 231 of the Russian Criminal Code since the start of what Russia calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine, the news agency said.
Ukraine and its allies say Russia’s military intervention in its neighbour, launched on Feb. 24 last year, is an imperialistic land-grab.
There have been several sabotage incidents against Russian railways and other facilities, especially in regions bordering Ukraine, such as Belgorod and Bryansk, according to the British Ministry of Defence.
The ministry said in an October report that with the Russian military primarily relaying on rail transport, which often passes through isolated areas, meaning “the system is extremely challenging to secure against physical threats”.
Separately, Alexander Bastrykin, the head of the Investigative Committee of Russia, the main state investigating agency, told TASS in an interview on Monday that there have been more than 150 criminal cases opened on statements discrediting the Russian army.
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Robert Birsel)
