The Pechersk District Court of Kyiv has sentenced 77-year-old Mykola Azarov, who served as Ukraine’s prime minister from 2010 to 2014, to 15 years in prison in absentia with confiscation of property. This was reported on Wednesday, December 3, by the Ukrainian outlet Court Reporter.

Azarov, who has been living in Russia since 2014, was found guilty of high treason under martial law, attempting to violently change the constitutional order, encroaching on the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine, as well as “justifying, recognizing as lawful, and denying the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, and glorifying its participants.”

According to the investigation conducted by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), the former prime minister “actively cooperates with Russian special services to carry out subversive activities in the interests of the Kremlin.” It is noted that the politician “regularly spreads anti-Ukrainian narratives” and “fake information about the socio-political situation” in Ukraine. In particular, it is stated that in one YouTube interview, Azarov called the events in Bucha “a show,” claiming that the “massacre” in the city was provoked by Ukrainians.

Azarov shared his views on his own social media pages and online platforms. As the court established, two Ukrainian citizens—Valentyna Khliopiacha and Olena Khokhlova, former employees of the Shevchenkivskyi district administration in Kyiv—were involved in managing his information resources and “preparing provocative publications.”

Mykola Azarov left Ukraine in February 2014 following the escape of former president Viktor Yanukovych. Seven years later, he was arrested in absentia on suspicion of high treason over the signing of the so-called “Kharkiv Agreements,” which proposed extending the stay of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Crimea from the originally expected 2017 to 2042 in exchange for revising the price of Russian gas for Ukraine.