A court in Rostov Oblast has sentenced 20-year-old local resident Ilya Doroshenko to 13 years in a penal colony for organizing a sabotage group that set fire to a freight train locomotive.
The two teenage accomplices recruited by Doroshenko were also sentenced by the court for their involvement in the railway attack. A 17-year-old male was sentenced to eight years and six months in an educational colony for juvenile offenders. A 16-year-old female received a six-and-a-half-year suspended prison sentence with three years of probation.
According to investigators, an unknown handler initially approached Doroshenko and proposed disabling a freight train on the rail network. The handler promised to pay a fee of 150,000 rubles for carrying out the operation. Officials from the regional management of Russia's Federal Security Service, the FSB, reported the court verdict to local news outlet Lenta.ru.
Arson at Rostov railway station
Following the offer, Doroshenko brought two teenage acquaintances into the plot to assist him in targeting rail transport. Together, the group traveled to the Rostov-Tovarny railway station, where they set fire to a section of an electric locomotive pulling a freight train. Officers from the FSB moved in shortly after the arson attack and took all three suspects into custody.
Rostov Oblast is a regional jurisdiction located in southwestern Russia along the border with Ukraine, with its administrative center at Rostov-on-Don serving as a key transportation hub. The Rostov-Tovarny station functions as a major rail freight yard handling industrial cargo across the region's transport corridors. Under the Russian criminal justice system, adult convicts serve sentences in penal colonies, whereas minors under 18 are sent to specialized educational colonies. Suspended sentences require convicts to adhere to court-mandated restrictions during their probation period.
Incidents involving underage suspects
The conviction comes amid reported efforts by law enforcement agencies to investigate sabotage plots targeting transport infrastructure. Authorities previously disclosed the detention of a 15-year-old schoolgirl in the Krasnoyarsk Krai region of Siberia. Security officials stated that the teenager had undergone specialized sabotage training under the instruction of a foreign handler prior to her arrest.
