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Russian courts hand down treason and arson sentences
Summary
Two Russian court rulings and heavy strikes on Kharkiv Oblast marked the days around 21 May 2024.
What did the security picture look like around 21 May 2024? Two Russian court rulings and a run of deadly strikes in Kharkiv Oblast defined the period.
On 21 May 2024, a court in Saint Petersburg sentenced Anatoly Maslov, a 77-year-old hypersonic missiles expert, to 14 years in prison for state treason.
A day earlier, on 20 May 2024, a court in Novosibirsk sentenced a 24-year-old man to 25 years in prison. He was accused of plotting an arson attack on a military recruitment office, allegedly on directions from Ukraine. The case belongs to a wider series of Molotov cocktail arson attacks and shootings on Russian military commissariats, which began after the start of the invasion in 2022. Those attacks formed part of the Russian partisan and anti-war movements and were spurred by several factors, including the deployment of conscripts to the front line, the start of spring conscription and rumours of possible mobilisation, which were later found to be true.
Strikes on Kharkiv Oblast
The court rulings came as Russian attacks continued in Kharkiv Oblast. On 19 May 2024, at least six people were killed and 27 others injured in a Russian double-tap missile strike on a recreation area near Kharkiv. Separately that day, five people were killed and nine others injured when a Russian multiple launch rocket system hit two villages in Kupiansk Raion, Kharkiv Oblast.
Taken together, the reports from 19 to 21 May 2024 show the war reaching into both Ukrainian civilian areas and Russian courtrooms, where lengthy prison terms were handed down in cases tied to treason and to an alleged arson plot.
