A Moscow military court on Tuesday sentenced two men to 24 and 26 years in prison after they were found guilty of trying to assassinate a former Ukrainian intelligence officer in a bomb attack.
Vasily Prozorov, a former employee of Ukraine’s SBU security service, was injured in April 2024 after an explosive device placed under his SUV in Moscow went off.
Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office said Vladimir Golovchenko, 42, and Ivan Paskar, 31, were behind the plot to kill Prozorov. Prosecutors accused the two men of forming “an organized group driven by their opposition” to the war in Ukraine.
Exiled Russian media previously identified Golovchenko as a dual Russian-Kyrgyz national who moved to Ukraine in 2010 and obtained a residence permit there. Law enforcement authorities in Kyrgyzstan reportedly arrested Golovchenko in April and had him extradited to Russia to stand trial.
Paskar was identified as a dual Russian-Moldovan citizen.
Moscow’s Second Western District Military Court on Tuesday found Golovchenko and Paskar guilty of terrorism, as well as the illegal manufacture and possession of explosives. Golovchenko received a 26-year prison sentence, while Paskar received a 24-year prison sentence.
Golovchenko reportedly pleaded guilty during the trial, while Paskar slammed the charges as “unfounded.”
A third defendant in the case, Ukrainian national Rostislav Zhuravlev, was sentenced to 16 years in prison in August. Several other alleged accomplices are awaiting trial, prosecutors said.
The Investigative Committee, Russia’s top investigative body, said Golovchenko, Paskar and Zhuravlev tracked Prozorov’s movements in the lead up to the bomb attack. Golovchenko was said to have planted the explosive device under Prozorov’s SUV on April 9, 2024, three days before it was detonated.
Investigators said preparations for the bomb plot began as early as February 2022, when Russia launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
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