A court in Kyrgyzstan has sentenced another Kyrgyz citizen to a prison term for his participation in Russia’s war against Ukraine.
The Naryn regional court sentenced Beknazar Borugul uulu to five years in prison for participating in the war in Ukraine as part of the Russian private military company Wagner. The court announced on January 4 that the decision was made on December 7, 2023, Azattyk (RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service) reported.
The first Kyrgyz citizen who was jailed in Kyrgyzstan for the participation in the Ukraine war was 31-year-old Askar Kubanychbek uulu. In May 2023, he was sentenced by the court to 10 years in prison, but in August of the same year, the Kyrgyz Supreme Court cancelled the verdict and sent the case for a new trial.
Media reports said that the Russian private military company Wagner began recruiting Kyrgyzstanis serving sentences in Russian prisons and sending them to the war in Ukraine in 2022. There were reports in Kyrgyz media of several cases in which Kyrgyzstanis died in the war in Ukraine.
Azattyk earlier reported that at least 10 Kyrgyzstanis were killed while serving with the Russian army in Ukraine. The BBC reported at least 13 names, but the real number may be higher.
In Kyrgyzstan, there is criminal responsibility for being a mercenary and taking part in military conflicts abroad.
In Kazakhstan, the Qaraghandy regional court in November 2023 sentenced a local resident, Aleksei Shompolov, to six years and eight months in prison for joining Russia’s Wagner mercenary group and fighting against Ukrainian forces in May in Bakhmut, where he was injured, RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service reported. The 34-year-old, who pleaded guilty, was arrested after arriving back in Kazakhstan, which makes it a crime to serve as a mercenary abroad.
In the spring of 2023, the National Security Committee of Kazakhstan reported on ten criminal cases opened against citizens of Kazakhstan for their participation in the Ukraine war. The Criminal Code of Kazakhstan punishes for participation in armed conflicts abroad with prison terms of five to nine years.
In Uzbekistan, the first Uzbek citizen who was sent to prison for joining Russian troops fighting in Ukraine was Ildar Khairulin. His relatives told RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service on October 30, 2023 that the 38-year-old man was handed a five-year prison term after an Uzbek court found him guilty of being a mercenary in Ukraine’s Donetsk region in 2014-15.
Khairulin’s relatives denied he had ever been to Ukraine, adding that all charges against him had been based on “false data” filed by the Kyiv-based NGO Myrotvorets (Peacemaker), which aims to inform local law enforcement about foreign citizens who allegedly commit crimes against Ukraine.
In Tajikistan, authorities have also warned the country’s citizens against participation in the Ukraine war. In the fall of 2022, the Tajik Embassy in Russia warned Tajik citizens temporarily living and working in the Russian Federation of criminal responsibility for participating in military conflicts abroad.
None of the Central Asian countries has openly supported or condemned Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.
