The Irkutsk City Court sentenced 32-year-old Dmitry Rupenko to 15 years in prison on charges of treason and aiding sabotage. According to a Sotavision courtroom reporter, he is to spend the first 3.5 years in prison, with the remainder of the term in a maximum-security penal colony. Prosecutors had earlier asked for a 17-year sentence.
The court also ordered the confiscation of Rupenko’s phone, his quadcopter, and a laptop belonging to his mother. He was detained in September 2024 near an aircraft plant in Irkutsk.
Investigators say that, acting “on the instructions of an unidentified handler,” Rupenko suggested the plant as a target for a Ukrainian drone strike. According to the prosecution’s version, he was filming railway tracks near the plant with a drone when he was arrested.
Rupenko rejected that account and said he had been filming scenic views for an advertising project at his new job. During the trial, the defense presented an opinion from an independent linguist, who said that the person described in the case materials as a “Ukrainian handler” had merely imitated Ukrainian speech in the correspondence.
A psychiatrist who testified in court also reported irregularities in the examination of the defendant’s mental health. At a hearing in May, outlet Lyudi Baikala wrote, Rupenko refused to testify against himself.
Rupenko has been diagnosed with epilepsy, ulcerative colitis, and a hole in his larynx that has not healed since 2017 after a failed tracheostomy. During colds, phlegm exits through that opening, making breathing difficult. After he was transferred to the Irkutsk pretrial detention center a month after his arrest, he repeatedly complained about detention conditions and the lack of necessary medical care.