A court in Russia's southwestern city of Rostov-on-Don has sentenced to lengthy prison terms two men for the illegal sale of parts of a S-300 missile complex to Ukraine.
The court on July 28 found Russian Denis Lobov and Armenian Ararat Khachatrian guilty of smuggling military equipment that is considered a "state secret" to Ukraine.
Lobov was sentenced to 9 1/2 years in prison while Khachatrian was given 10 years and five months.
In recent years, Russia has arrested and convicted several men and women, including Ukrainian and Russian citizens, on charges of spying for Ukraine or providing Kyiv with classified information.
Relations between Moscow and Kyiv have been tense since 2014, when Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and began backing separatists in a conflict in eastern Ukraine which has left more than 13,200 people dead.
