Man from Luhansk sentenced to 18 years on espionage and treason charges

In occupied Luhansk, Yuriy Bykadorov has been sentenced to 18 years in a high-security penal colony on charges of cooperating with Ukrainian intelligence. The news comes from the occupation prosecutor’s office of the ‘LPR’ and the ‘Supreme Court of the LPR’.

According to the prosecution, in March 2023 Yuriy Bykadorov messaged an unidentified representative of Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU), reporting the whereabouts of Russian troops and military equipment he had seen in Luhansk. He did not hold a Russian passport at the time, so he was charged under espionage legislation (Article 276 of the Russian Criminal Code). By 2024 he had acquired Russian citizenship, and the occupation court claims he passed information to an SBU representative once again, an act treated as high treason (Article 275).

Yuriy Bykadorov is 37 and has reportedly had a group III disability since childhood.