Ukrainian spy 'tried to poison Russian military pilots with doped cake and booze'

Daily Mirror

30-04-2025

A Ukrainian spy who tried to poison scores of Russian military pilots with doped cake and booze has been sentenced to 27 years behind bars on terrorist charges. Accused Yegor Semenov, 34, had been recruited by Kyiv's Ukrainian Security Services (SBU) in a bizarre plot to kill graduates from Russia's elite Top Gun school, the trial heard.
Judges at the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don heard how Semenov had been promised RUB 400,000 (GBP 3,600) by his handlers to carry out the mass poisoning. Semenov, who had the SUB codename 'Mercenary 35', had targeted 70 guests at a reunion party for Russia's Armavir Higher Military Aviation School in Krasnodar Krai. The 70-plus party-goers included some of Russia's most experienced and senior pilots, military chiefs and their families.
Prosecutors told how Semenov had bought 118 bottles of booze like Jameson's Irish Whiskey and cheap Armenian Kochari brandy and a giant cake.
According to the court he injected them with the huge doses of the powerful medical stimulant cordiamine, which can cause seizures and respiratory arrest.
Finally, it was decided Semenov used a courier service to send the toxic treats to the party at the Tsarskaya Okhota restaurant with a note pretending saying they were gifts from a missing guest.
But the closed-door trial heard how the plot fell apart when some pilots became suspicious of the medical smell coming from the cake and called police to the bash in April last year (2024).
Forensic tests showed the cake and every bottle of alcohol had been doped by the deadly drug, once used in small doses by Adolf Hitler's doctor to combat barbiturate overdoses.
Semenov was arrested just hours later in possession of a return ticket to Moscow and plans to flee to Egypt.
The court heard how Semenov discussed the plot in encrypted messaging apps with his SUB paymasters.
Prosecutors told how Ukrainian-born Semenov had moved to Russia in 2018 and obtained Russian citizenship four years later.
But after the Kremlin's invasion of his homeland, he contacted the SUB and offered to help them sabotage the Russian military.
Semenov admitted treason and terrorism but claimed he had been blackmailed by the SUB who had threatened to harm his mother.
But under interrogation, police said Semenov had described his feelings of "pure joy" at the idea of the elite Russian pilots tucking into the poison.
The trial began in January 2025 and concluded with the hefty jail sentence on 29th April.
Semenov will serve the first five years in a hard-labour prison, with the remainder in a strict-regime penal colony, followed by one year of restricted freedom.
Prosecutors had pushed for a full life tariff and now plans to appeal the sentence.