{"id":4868,"date":"2025-04-29T17:37:59","date_gmt":"2025-04-29T17:37:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/04\/29\/man-accused-of-trying-to-kill-russia-army-pilots-with-poisoned-liquor-and-cakes-is-sentenced-to-27-years\/"},"modified":"2025-04-29T17:38:00","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T17:38:00","slug":"man-accused-of-trying-to-kill-russia-army-pilots-with-poisoned-liquor-and-cakes-is-sentenced-to-27-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/04\/29\/man-accused-of-trying-to-kill-russia-army-pilots-with-poisoned-liquor-and-cakes-is-sentenced-to-27-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Man accused of trying to kill Russia army pilots with poisoned liquor and cakes is sentenced to 27 years"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A Russian military court convicted and sentenced a man to 27 years in jail on Tuesday for attempting to kill army pilots with poisoned alcohol and cakes at a graduation party on Ukrainian orders.<\/p>\n

According to Russian investigators, Yegor Semenov was recruited by the Ukrainian secret service and was promised about $5,000 for sending poisoned alcohol and cakes to a military pilots graduation party in Armavir, southern Russia.<\/p>\n

Semenov, a 34-year-old dual national, was born in Ukraine and acquired Russian citizenship only in 2022, investigators said.<\/p>\n

“The defendant was found guilty and sentenced to 27 years’ imprisonment in a maximum security penal colony,” the court said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The poison plot ultimately failed as the pilots grew suspicious of the package and sent it for an examination, which revealed a lethal dose of a medical drug in the cakes and the whisky and cognac bottles. A post on Telegram<\/a> purported to show an image of a drug-laced cake.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors requested a life sentence for Semenov, who was charged with state treason and terrorism, and will appeal the verdict.<\/p>\n

Russia has been hit with a slew of killings of its servicemen behind the frontlines, including high-ranking generals, after launching its offensive in Ukraine<\/a><\/span>, which entered its fourth year. Most recently, Russia has accused Kyiv of being behind the murder of senior Russian general Yaroslav Moskalik, who was killed in a car blast<\/a><\/span> outside Moscow last week.<\/p>\n

Ukraine normally does not comment on any covert operations inside Russia but in some cases Kyiv has claimed responsibility. These include the August 2022\u00a0car bombing of nationalist Darya Dugina<\/a><\/span>\u00a0and an explosion in a Saint Petersburg cafe in April 2023 that killed high-profile military correspondent\u00a0Maxim Fomin<\/a><\/span>, known as Vladlen Tatarsky.<\/p>\n

In December 2023, Illia Kiva, a former pro-Moscow Ukrainian lawmaker who fled to Russia,\u00a0was shot and killed<\/a><\/span>\u00a0near Moscow. The Ukrainian military intelligence lauded the killing, warning that other “traitors of Ukraine” would share the same fate.<\/p>\n

Igor Kirillov, the head of the Russian military’s chemical weapons unit, was\u00a0killed by a bomb planted<\/a><\/span>\u00a0in a scooter in Moscow in December. Ukrainian security sources told CBS News the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) killed Kirillov in a special operation.<\/p>\n

After Kirillov’s killing, Putin made a rare admission of failings by his powerful security agencies, saying: “We must not allow such very serious blunders to happen.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n