Ukrainian man gets 10-year sentence in Russia for alleged US$120 donation to Azov Regiment
Source: Nastoyashchee Vremya TV channel, citing the court's press service
Quote: "The investigators reported that Rudenko, 'sharing the ideology' of the Azov Regiment, decided to assist its members by financing their activities. On 13 November 2023, he saw an announcement and transferred money for purchasing drones."
Details: Nastoyashchee Vremya states that Russian prosecutors claimed Rudenko transferred approximately UAH 5,000 (US$120) to the soldiers.
For this, the Russian court sentenced Rudenko to 10 years in prison.
Background:
On 18 October 2024, Ukrainian human rights activist and serviceman Maksym Butkevych was released from Russian captivity.
Butkevych, who fought in Ukraine's east as part of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, was captured by Russian troops in the summer of 2022. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison in March 2023 by a "court" in the so-called "Luhansk People's Republic", a Russian-backed terrorist organisation.
On 14 January, the 2nd Western Military District Court in Moscow sentenced seven Ukrainian prisoners of war who took part in the Ukrainian Armed Forces' offensive in Kursk Oblast. The soldiers were sentenced to 15-16 years of imprisonment.
On 26 March, it was reported that a military court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced 23 Ukrainian prisoners of war who served in the Azov Regiment to imprisonment in a maximum-security colony. Twelve of them received real sentences ranging from 13 to 23 years, while the rest were given sentences in absentia.
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While European allies have largely committed to backing Ukraine indefinitely, Trump has publicly questioned Zelensky's position, famously telling the Ukrainian leader he did not "have the cards" during a heated exchange at the White House in February. Since then, Trump softened his tone on Ukraine and hardened his rhetoric toward Russia, for whom he threatened "very severe consequences" should the upcoming summit with Putin fail to yield a successful outcome on Wednesday. But with Trump acknowledging that territorial changes were on the line in the talks, the recent Russian advances could prove pivotal to Putin's leverage when he arrives in Alaska seeking permanent control over at least Donetsk and Luhansk, as U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff has suggested, and potentially—as the Russian leader has repeatedly demanded—Kherson and Zaporizhzhia as well. 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