Russian Court Convicts Ukrainian For Trying To Smuggle Missile-Defense Parts

A court in central Russia has sentenced a Ukrainian citizen to more than three years in prison after convicting him of trying to smuggle parts from a Russian missile system to Ukraine.

Ukraine is fighting a seven-year war against Russia-backed separatists and Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) alleged on August 2 that the man has "links to the Security Service of Ukraine."

Russian media reports about the conviction, by the Yoshkar-Ola City Court in the Volga region's Republic of Mari El, did not disclose the man's identity.

A court in the southwestern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don last week sentenced a Russian and an Armenian to between 9 1/2 and 10 1/2 years in prison after finding them guilty of trying to smuggle parts of a S-300 missile system to Ukraine.

Russia has arrested and convicted multiple 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 forcibly seized Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and armed Russia-backed separatists ignited a conflict in eastern Ukraine that has left more than 13,200 people dead.

Based on reporting by TASS and Interfax