Four residents of Melitopol have been convicted in Rostov-on-Don for preparing terrorist acts.

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The Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced four residents of Melitopol to terms ranging from 17 to 28 years, finding them guilty of preparing terrorist acts against local officials.

The defendants Vladislav Vidlatsky, Konstantin Zinovkin, Alexey, and Grigory Semikopenko were accused of illegal trafficking in explosives and preparing a terrorist act.

In addition, Vidlatsky and Zinovkin, being citizens of Russia, were charged with treason, while the Semikopenko brothers were charged with espionage, writes Kommersant on September 22.

The court established that in 2022, Vidlatsky, Zinovkin, and Grigory Semikopenko joined a terrorist community in Melitopol created by Ukrainian special services. They were tasked with carrying out terrorist acts.

Vidlatsky and Semikopenko monitored the alleged targets of the terrorist acts, while Zinovkin committed to producing the explosives necessary for making an IED. With his help, they planned to carry out a terrorist act against an employee of the military-civilian administration.

That same year, the defendants acquired explosives and hid them. The following year, the curators decided to carry out a terrorist act against the acting deputy minister of construction, architecture, and housing and communal services of the Zaporizhzhia region. Three defendants planted a bomb disguised as a bottle in a trash can, but they were unable to detonate it as law enforcement had replaced the bomb with a dummy.

In May 2023, the curators decided to carry out a terrorist act against the Minister of Education and Science of the Zaporizhzhia region, but Vidlatsky and Semikopenko were detained.

Alexey Semikopenko participated in gathering information about entrances and exits, security, cameras, and video surveillance systems, as well as the location of the ventilation system in the building of the Zaporizhzhia regional governor's administration, which he passed on to Grigory.

The court sentenced Vidlatsky to 27 years in a strict regime colony, with the first six years in prison and a fine of 500,000 rubles; Zinovkin to 28 years in a strict regime colony, with the first seven years in prison and a fine of 600,000 rubles; Grigory Semikopenko to 24 years in a strict regime colony, with the first six years in prison; and Alexey Semikopenko to 17 years in a strict regime colony.

Earlier, "Caucasian Knot" reported that in early September, the Southern District Military Court sentenced Anton Kadykov, a resident of the Zaporizhzhia region, to 22 years in a colony for blowing up his boss's workplace in the MFC.

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