2 Captured Russian Men Sentenced to Prison in Ukraine

By ANDREW E. KRAMER

MOSCOW — A Ukrainian court sentenced two Russian men to 14 years in prison on Monday for fighting against Ukraine as active-duty soldiers in the Russian military, a central issue in the separatist war in southeast Ukraine.

The Russian government denies any role in the fighting and the Russian Defense Ministry refuses to acknowledge any ties to the two men. The two were wounded and captured on a battlefield last summer. The government of Ukraine and those of Western nations insist that Russia is actively supporting the pro-Russian separatists.

In the course of the trial, Ukraine claimed to have finally captured — and put in a glass cage in the courtroom in Kiev — two living examples of the suspected thousands of “little green men,” or Russian soldiers fighting on the separatist side in uniforms without insignia.

As such, the pair — Capt. Yevgeny Yerofeyev and Sgt. Aleksandr Aleksandrov — had taken on immense symbolic importance for Ukrainians. The ranks date from their time in the Russian military. The Russian government said both had resigned from the military before leaving the country to fight in Ukraine.

Initially, they confessed in a video to serving in the Russian military intelligence service, known by its abbreviation G.R.U., and to belonging to a unit based in the Volga River town of Togliatti, almost 500 miles southeast of Moscow. They later backpedaled in a court hearing, saying they were soldiers with a separatist group.

Still, their Ukrainian lawyers, one of whom was kidnapped and murdered under mysterious circumstances during the trial, had continued to insist the two be treated as prisoners of war rather than criminal suspects.

All the while, the Russian government denied any ties to the men or obligation to help with their defense.

At Monday’s hearing, both were convicted of various terrorism-related charges for taking part in a firefight that killed a Ukrainian soldier and wounded three other Ukrainians. The two fighters were apprehended after that battle.

Nobody disputes that the two are Russian citizens. At issue was whether the pair, who stood impassively as defendants in the glass cage during the two-hour reading of the verdict, were active-duty Russian soldiers who infiltrated Ukraine in unmarked uniforms.

The conviction seemed likely to open the door for a prisoner exchange for Lt. Nadiya Savchenko, a Ukrainian military pilot sentenced in Russia to 22 years in prison on charges of calling in an artillery strike that killed a journalist, also during fighting in southeastern Ukraine.

Ukrainian officials, the lawyer for Mr. Yerofeyev, Oksana Sokolovskaya, and Russian lawyers representing Ms. Savchanko say a trade now seems imminent.

 Alisa Sopova contributed reporting from Kiev, Ukraine.

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