'Ukrainian spy' tried wiping out Putin's pilots by poisoning cake and whiskey
An alleged Ukrainian spy who tried to poison dozens of Russian war pilots has been jailed for 27 years.
Yegor Semenov, 34, was convicted of treason and terrorism by a Russian military court.
He is accused of spiking a giant cake, 76 bottles of Jameson Irish Whiskey, and 40 bottles of brandy and sending them to a reunion event at Armavir Military Flight School.
The 20kg cake was sliced but left uneaten after a senior officer became suspicious over who had sent it.
It was then discovered the items were spiked with a 'potent' Russian drug which could cause seizures, convulsions, cardiovascular stress and acute breathing problems.
A court statement said he had been ordered by the Ukrainian SBU secret service to 'puncture' the bottle tops 'and use a syringe to extract part of the drink from the bottle, after which he added the drug in a toxic dose, which would lead to the death of people'.
There were 77 guests at the reunion event, and it's not known if any pilots became ill as a result of consuming the doctored cake or alcohol.
CCTV footage and facial recognition technology was used to identify and find Semenov, who was in Melitopol in occupied Ukraine.
Semenov is a Russian citizen who carried a Russian passport, but the court was told he took orders from Ukrainian intelligence.
The court heard he was detained at Stavropol airport as he attempted to leave the country. More Trending
Semenov allegedly confessed to the poisoning mission, for which he had been offered the equivalent of £3,660.
He was convicted by a closed-door military trial in Rostov-on-Don and will spend five of his 27-year sentence in prison before being moved to a maximum security penal colony.
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