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Russia's Supreme Court Upholds Sentences For Two Ukrainians


Stanislav Klykh (left) and Mykola Karpyuk appear in court while on trial in Grozny in 2015.
Stanislav Klykh (left) and Mykola Karpyuk appear in court while on trial in Grozny in 2015.

Russia's Supreme Court has upheld lengthy sentences for two Ukrainian citizens convicted of fighting alongside Chechen separatists in the 1990s.

In May, Chechnya's Supreme Court sentenced Mykola Karpyuk and Stanislav Klykh to 22 and 20 years in prison, respectively.

Karpyuk and Klykh have both denied the charges.

The Moscow-based Memorial human rights center has recognized Karpyuk and Klykh as political prisoners.

Ukrainian parliament deputy Nadia Savchenko attended the Supreme Court's hearings in Moscow on October 26.

Savchenko, a former military pilot, was captured in eastern Ukraine in June 2014 and illegally taken to Russia, where she was charged with aiding in the killing of two Russian journalists.

Savchenko was sentenced to 22 years in prison, but was released in a prisoner swap in May 2016.

Based on reporting by TASS and Interfax

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