8 years of sentence in Russia and sanctions in Ukraine: former MP Mosiychuk announced the creation of a “party of peace”

8 years of sentence in Russia and sanctions in Ukraine: former MP Mosiychuk announced the creation of a 'party of peace'.

Former People’s Deputy of Ukraine Ihor Mosiychuk received a suspended sentence in Russia: eight years of imprisonment. The Moscow City Court found him guilty in a case related to events near the Russian embassy in Kyiv in March 2016 year.

He spoke about this in an interview with EuroToday.

The sentence was pronounced in 8 September 2026 of the year. The Russian court found Mosiychuk guilty under part 2 of art. 360 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation — for an attack on an institution that enjoys international protection.

According to the Russian side, during the rally near the diplomatic mission, the embassy's property was damaged. The court also satisfied the civil claim, ordering jointly to recover from Mosiychuk and his former assistant Tetyana Blyzniuk, who was previously sentenced to 13 years in a strict regime colony, 1 845 365 rubles in favor of the SOGAZ insurance company as compensation for claimed damages.

Ihor Mosiychuk stated that over the past years he has reevaluated certain of his actions and today views some radical actions of that period differently. At the same time, he ties the sentence to his current position on the necessity of stopping the war in Ukraine as soon as possible.

"Honestly, I regret many of my actions of that time, and I would not throw eggs at the Russian embassy, as at any other embassy, because for diplomatic struggle there are other diplomatic methods. But those were different times, emotions, and corresponding emotional actions. What was done was done," Mosiychuk said.

According to him, not only his attitude toward past actions has changed. Much more important today is his stance on the war itself. Mosiychuk is increasingly advocating for its termination, negotiations, and seeking a political formula for peace.

It is through this lens that he proposes to view the Russian sentence as well.

"Now, in a time of great war, I perceive this sentence of the Russian court as a recognition and even a reward for my persistent fight for peace in my native Ukraine," says the former deputy.

Why did the sentence appear exactly now? — in this story there are indeed many questions about the timing of its delivery.

The criminal prosecution of Mosiychuk in Russia has been ongoing for years, it began long before 2026 year. Moscow has known for years about his political biography and anti-Russian views. Yet the accusation sentence of the Moscow City Court appeared only in 8 September 2026 year. That is why the timing when the Russian judicial system finally brought the case to an accusatory sentence was for the former deputy no less important than the sentence itself.

Ihor Mosiychuk does not consider this moment accidental. In his interpretation, in recent years his own public position has changed first and foremost: from radical rhetoric of the past to constant calls to stop the war.

It is from here that one of Mosiychuk's central and important theses and assertions arises — about the existence of conditional 'party of war' and 'party of peace,' not only in Ukraine or Russia.

He believes that in various countries there exist political, social, and other forces for whom a quick end to the Russian-Ukrainian war is undesirable for various reasons. Mosiychuk argues that supporters of continuing the war on different sides of the front essentially feed each other’s arguments: radical rhetoric on one side allows radicals on the other to convince their own society that negotiations are impossible.

At the same time, Ihor Mosiychuk goes further. He claims that the current Russian sentence is connected precisely with his anti-war position.

"This sentence, I am firmly convinced, was actually issued by the Russian court at the request of the Russian war party, which, as I do not rule out, was asked for this service by their partners from the Ukrainian war party — marauders and corruptors who make a stake on this war and count bloody bucks," he said.

In his statements Mosiychuk speaks first of all about the political logic by which radical forces on opposite sides can objectively be interested in each other's existence even without direct interaction.

"Why are they not prosecuted, but Mosiychuk is given eight years?"

To support his argument, Mosiychuk points to Ukrainian public figures with a clearly expressed hard anti-Russian stance.

Among others, he mentions Serhiy Sternenko, Ihor Lachenkov, Serhiy Prytula, Mykhailo Fedorov, Rustem Umerov, Mykhailo Podolyak, Maryana Bezuhla, Vitalii Portnikov and others. Mosiychuk counts them among public supporters of the approach to war that he himself calls the "party of war."

Sanctions in Ukraine

The Russian sentence is not the only restrictive measure Mosiychuk faced.

25 May 2025, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, signed into effect the decision of the National Security and Defense Council to apply personal sanctions, which included the former MP. The fact of sanctions against Mosiychuk is confirmed by the relevant decision of the Ukrainian authorities.

Regarding the reasons for their application, there have been no well-founded explanations from Ukrainian authorities. Instead, Mosiychuk has his own version. He claims that the sanctions were a reaction to his journalistic activity, namely investigations in which he spoke about probable corruption among people close to the Ukrainian authorities, including people from Volodymyr Zelensky's circle.

Even after the restrictions were imposed in May 2025, Mosiychuk publicly called them a kind of "award for journalistic work".

Now he places side by side two decisions made in different countries: sanctions in Ukraine and eight years of imprisonment in Russia.

"So I have sanctions in Ukraine solely for journalistic activity, and in Russia eight years of imprisonment. That’s how I live!" Mosiychuk says.

As a result, a picture of double pressure emerges. On the one hand — Ukrainian sanctions, whose motives are linked to public and journalistic activity. On the other — a Russian conviction in a case related to past anti-Russian actions.

And Mosiychuk now fits both stories into a broader question — who benefits from peace today and who benefits from continuing the war.

"Party of Peace" without dividing Ukrainians.

Despite the Russian sentence and Ukrainian sanctions, Mosiychuk says he does not intend to give up his current position.

He speaks of the need to create not a formal political organization, but a broad conditional 'party of peace' that could unite Ukrainians around a single goal - stopping the war and preserving the state and its people.

In Mosiychuk’s view, the question of peace should stand above internal disputes in Ukrainian society — language, religion, party affiliation, or historical issues.

"I call for unity in the fight for peace in our Ukraine for all Ukrainians, regardless of what language you speak, which church you attend, who you consider a national hero, which party you belong to, or what ideology you profess — to unite in a conditional 'party of peace,' the main task of which will be to stop the war and deaths in Ukraine," he says.

At the same time, Mosiychuk says he is ready to talk not only with like-minded people inside Ukraine. He believes it is necessary to seek people ready for peaceful dialogue also in Russia.

"I am ready for dialogue with reasonable people of peace in Russia, because only dialogue, discussion can find a formula to stop the war and return peace to our Ukrainian land," Mosiychuk stated.

For him, this position does not mean renouncing Ukrainian statehood. On the contrary, he presents the fight to stop the war as a fight to preserve it — together with the preservation of the Ukrainian people and the future of successive generations.

In essence, the history of Ihor Mosiychuk naturally may be a space for dispute, which is why there is freedom of speech. One may disagree with his political assessments, his interpretation of certain events, the paths to peace he proposes. One can also critically assess his own political past — part of his actions at the time he is reevaluating even he himself.

But the real chronology remains the real chronology: the Russian case against Mosiychuk existed for years, and the accusatory sentence of eight years of imprisonment appeared in 8 September 2026 year, when the former deputy itself actively positions himself as a supporter of negotiations and as speedy ending of the war.