Court Orders Citizen Who Justified Russian Aggression to Read War Books

24 March, 2025 The book "On the Shield". Source: dyvys.info In Kyiv, a court has ordered a citizen who justified Russia's aggression to read books on the Russian-Ukrainian war.

The ruling of the Sviatoshynskyi District Court states that a citizen from the Cherkasy region published messages on Telegram justifying Russia's invasion of Ukraine. During the court hearing, the defendant fully admitted his guilt and sincerely repented. "He spread publications that justified, recognized as legitimate, and denied the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, which began in 2014," the decision states.

Initially, the offender was sentenced to 5 years in prison, but this was later replaced with a 3-year probation period. The court also ordered the citizen to read books by Ukrainian veterans, historians, writers, and Russian opposition figures:

• "And the Angel with the Machine Gun on His Shoulder" by Leonid Datsenko
• "Ukraine in the Age of Hybrid Challenges" by Larysa Yakubova
• "Ukraine in the Era of War and Peace" by Yuriy Shcherbak
• "Winter is Coming" by Garry Kasparov
• "Isolation" by Iryna Vovk, Darya Bura
• "On the Shield" by Iryna Vovk
• "Memories of the Family of the Fallen" by Iryna Vovk
• "Donetsk Airport" by Iryna Vovk
• "Ilovaisk" by Yevhen Polozhiy
• Play "Bread Truce" by Serhiy Zhadan

The offender is required to write and submit a written description of their impressions from reading each book, with a minimum length of 200 words.

It is worth noting that the book of patriotic poems "And the Angel with the Machine Gun on His Shoulder" by Leonid Datsenko was written before the war, in 2011. The book by Ukrainian writer Yuriy Shcherbak, "Ukraine in the Era of War and Peace," is an attempt to imagine Ukraine in the 21st century within the broader context of fantastic social and scientific-technological changes that await humanity. The book "Winter is Coming" was written by Russian opposition figure and chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov.

It discusses Russia's return to dictatorship.