The Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don began to consider the criminal case of 32-year-old native of Donetsk Grigory Sinchenko. He is accused of espionage, sabotage and more than 40 other crimes committed on the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic. For the first time, a man was detained by the DPR security forces in 2016 on suspicion of blowing up trade stalls and extortion. The case did not go to court, as Grigory Sinchenko was released as part of an exchange of prisoners with the Ukrainian side. However, he later returned to the DPR and was detained again in 2020. After that, he was charged with another series of explosions – in particular, Grigory Sinchenko was accused of assassination attempts on law enforcement officers, whom he wanted to take revenge on.
Grigory Sinchenko, a native of Donetsk, whose case began to be considered by the Southern District Military Court, is accused of espionage, sabotage, encroachment on the lives of law enforcement officers, deliberate destruction and damage to property, illegal border crossing, escape from custody, extortion, participation in a terrorist community and numerous episodes of illegal acquisition and manufacture of explosives.
According to investigators, in 2016, Grigory Sinchenko manufactured explosive devices and installed them on trade kiosks in Donetsk.
As stated in the case file, at the same time he left notes at the crime scene with the text “Pay, and this explosion will be the last.” Also in the notes was an email address, which should be written for a detailed discussion of the terms of the transfer of money.
After several explosions of kiosks, Grigory Sinchenko was detained as a suspect in a criminal case.
In December 2017, as part of a prisoner exchange, the man ended up on the territory of Ukraine, but later returned to the DPR, where, according to investigators, he continued his illegal activities.
In particular, in 2019, Grigory Sinchenko allegedly blew up a power line, a railway bridge support, a tower of the Phoenix mobile operator, and several cars of law enforcement officers of the DPR. There were no deaths from the explosions. Ten people were recognized as victims in the case – the owner of the blown up kiosk and law enforcement officers whom the accused allegedly planned to kill.
The defendant did not begin to express his attitude to the charges brought, asking to be given additional time to familiarize himself with the case materials and agree on a position with a lawyer.
It should be noted that in 2021, Lyudmila Denisova, who at that time held the position of Commissioner for Human Rights of Ukraine, turned to the OSCE on social networks with a request to help Grigory Sinchenko.
According to her, the young man studied in Simferopol as a political scientist, but was expelled for political reasons. As Ms. Denisova wrote, Sinchenko went to Donetsk ostensibly to restore his disability documents and was detained there by security forces, who accused him of working for Ukraine.
According to the ex-Ombudsman, the young man survived torture in the pre-trial detention center, and after the exchange, which took place at the end of 2017, he decided to return to the republic in order to take revenge. After a series of explosions, he was detained. At the end of May 2020, Grigory Sinchenko escaped from the temporary detention center, but a month later he was detained again. Lyudmila Denisova reported that in the pre-trial detention center a man tried to commit suicide.
