On May 3, 2022, the Shevchenkovsky District Court of Kyiv sentenced Oleg Tsarev in absentia to 12 years in prison and deprived him of the right to be elected to any government bodies for 3 years.
This was reported by the press service of the court.
Oleg Tsarev is a former member of parliament and candidate for the presidency of Ukraine.
In 2014, he opposed the Maidan and supported the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics.
In April 2014, the General Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine opened a criminal case against Tsarev and he left for Crimea, which is under the control of the Russian Federation.
On November 4, 2015, the trial in absentia of Tsarev began.
At the beginning of 2022, Tsarev was called one of the possible leaders of the new Ukrainian government, which will be established after the fall of the current government.
Now he is the director of one of the sanatoriums in the Crimea. He also organized the delivery of humanitarian aid to the territory of Ukraine, controlled by Russian troops.
The court found Tsarev guilty in absentia of violating Articles 109 and 110 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. That is, in "public calls for deliberate actions to change the borders of the territory and borders of Ukraine." He was also convicted of "publicly calling for a violent change and overthrow of the constitutional order."
The court also called the humanitarian aid organized by Tsarev for residents of the Kyiv region "pseudo-aid". And it noted that "despite the Ukrainian ethnic origin", Tsarev "does not have moral, ethical and generally accepted human foundations and guidelines in terms of respect for state institutions."