WARSAW, April 16 (Reuters) – A court in Russian‑controlled Luhansk sentenced a Polish citizen to 13 years in a maximum-security penal colony for participating in armed conflict on the side of Ukraine, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office said on Thursday.
The 47-year-old Pole, Krzysztof Flaczek, arrived in September 2024 in Ukraine, where he began participating in combat operations after receiving training, it said.
Russia said he received financial compensation for fighting for Ukraine. He was detained by Russians in November 2024.
“Taking into account the position of the state prosecutor, the court sentenced the militant to 13 years of imprisonment to be served in a maximum-security penal colony,” prosecutors said.
Flaczek had been tried by a court in Russian-controlled Luhansk, one of four Ukrainian regions which Moscow claimed as its own in 2022 in a move Kyiv and the West rejected as an illegal land grab.
Russian courts have sentenced several western European for fighting for Ukraine, including two Britons.
(Reporting by Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk and Anna Peverieri; Editing by William Maclean)
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