Man accused of trying to kill Russia army pilots with poisoned liquor and cakes is sentenced to 27 years

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.

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.

Semenov, a 34-year-old dual national, was born in Ukraine and acquired Russian citizenship only in 2022, investigators said.

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

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 purported to show an image of a drug-laced cake.

Prosecutors requested a life sentence for Semenov, who was charged with state treason and terrorism, and will appeal the verdict.

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, 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 outside Moscow last week.

Ukraine normally does not comment on any covert operations inside Russia but in some cases Kyiv has claimed responsibility. These include the August 2022 car bombing of nationalist Darya Dugina and an explosion in a Saint Petersburg cafe in April 2023 that killed high-profile military correspondent Maxim Fomin, known as Vladlen Tatarsky.

In December 2023, Illia Kiva, a former pro-Moscow Ukrainian lawmaker who fled to Russia, was shot and killed near Moscow. The Ukrainian military intelligence lauded the killing, warning that other “traitors of Ukraine” would share the same fate.

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

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.”