Moscow Court Arrests Ukrainian Officials in Absentia Over Alleged Terrorist Attacks

MOSCOW, September 30. /TASS/. Moscow’s Basmanny Court has arrested Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s Main Intelligence Directorate Head Oleg Ivashchenko and Unmanned Systems Forces Commander Robert Brovdi in absentia for carrying out terrorist attacks in the Lugansk People’s Republic’s Starobelsk and the Bryansk Region, a law enforcement source told TASS.

"Ivashchenko will face a two-month arrest following transfer to Russian law enforcement officials, either upon extradition or upon detention in Russia. The same measure has been chosen for Brovdi in absentia," the source noted.

According to the court’s electronic database, the decisions on Ivashchenko and Brovdi were made on September 7. The Moscow City Court approved the decisions as lawful.

Earlier, the Russian Investigative Committee reported that Ivashchenko and Brovdi were implicated in terrorist attacks on the Starobelsk pedagogical college in the Lugansk People's Republic and on a bus carrying children from Belarus in the Bryansk Region. Both have been charged and are wanted internationally.

In the early morning hours of May 22, the Ukrainian armed forces deliberately carried out a massive multi-stage attack on the dormitory and the building of the Starobelsk pedagogical college in the Lugansk People’s Republic. The attack killed 21 people and injured 59 students. On June 17, Ukrainian servicemen launched a fixed-wing drone at a bus carrying a children’s soccer team from Belarus through the Bryansk Region. This terrorist attack resulted in the death of a woman accompanying the team and injured eight people, including six children.