ROSTOV-ON-DON. March 11 (Interfax) - Russia's Southern District Military Court has convicted Crimea resident Pyotr Zhitsky in a case opened into an attack on former Ukrainian parliament member Oleg Tsaryov, the court's press service told journalists.
"It has been established that Zhitsky spied on Tsaryov from December 1, 2022 to October 26, 2023, choosing a potential venue for an assassination attempt in May-June 2023. He also removed the electric detonator and explosives from a cache that he had earlier brought and illegally stored before making an improvised explosive device," the press service said.
Zhitsky acted on orders from Ukrainian special services, which recruited him in 2022, it said. They also ordered him to collect weapons and ammunition from the cache and pass them to other members of the criminal group.
"Using the information gathered by Zhitsky and passed by him to an officer of the Security Service of Ukraine, representatives of the foreign intelligence service staged an attempt on the life of public figure Tsaryov. Tsaryov was not injured because he put up active resistance and quickly left the scene," the press service said.
Zhitsky was found guilty of high treason, terrorist training, an attempt on the life of a public figure, illegal possession of explosive substances, illegal production of explosive devices and arms trafficking.
He was sentenced to 24 years in a high-security penitentiary.
As previously reported, a 46-year-old Russian citizen who organized the spying on Tsaryov and coordinated the attack on him, acting on orders from Ukrainian special services, was detained in Yalta on October 31, 2023. An improvised explosive device and components for it, the equipment used by the man to secretly keep in touch with his Ukrainian handlers, photos of Tsaryov and drawings with approach routes to the places where Tsaryov lived and worked were found during a search at the suspect's place of residence.
The Russian Federal Security Service later exposed a Ukrainian agent network plotting terrorist attacks, acts of sabotage and assassination attempts targeting public servants and military officials in Crimea.
Tsaryov served as a Ukrainian parliament member in 2002-2014. He supported the Donbass militia in 2014. A Ukrainian court sentenced him in absentia to 12 years of imprisonment.