Armenian mercenary fighting for Ukraine jailed for 12 years in Russia — MFA spox

Armen Balyan, an Armenian mercenary detained in Russia in October 2024, has been sentenced to 12 years in prison, the Russian Foreign Minister spokesperson Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on October 15.

“Russian courts continue to hand down sentences to Ukrainian neo-Nazis. For crimes committed in the Kursk region against civilians and Russian military personnel, captured Ukrainian Armed Forces militants have received long prison terms," she said, Caliber.Az reports, citing Russian media.

"Oleg Artyukh was sentenced to 26 years, Alexander Mokrienko to 17 years, Vitaliy Melitskiy and Vyacheslav Shchurov to 16 years each, Taras Milyan, Vladimir Eroshchenko, Dmitry Semenchuk, Bohdan Bodak, and Artyom Kovalchuk to 15 years each, and Alexander Babich to 14 and a half years. For the deliberate killing of civilians in March 2022 in Mariupol, Azov fighters Anatoliy Kamyshenko and Yevgeniy Vintovkin were each sentenced to 22 years in prison,” Zakharova said.

She added that 14- and 6-year sentences were handed down in absentia to “legionnaires from the UK and Argentina,” William Page and Sebastián Casseres.

By Khagan Isayev