During the appellate review, prosecutors from the Office of the Attorney General upheld the prosecution's position, resulting in the court's verdict regarding the fourth President of Ukraine and the former Deputy Head of the State Guard of Ukraine – Head of the Security Service of the President of Ukraine gaining legal force.

The Kyiv Court of Appeals rejected the defense's appeals and upheld the verdict of the Podil District Court of Kyiv.

According to the court's verdict, the former President of Ukraine was sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment for organizing the illegal transportation of individuals across the state border of Ukraine and inciting desertion under Part 2 of Article 332, Part 4 of Article 27, and Part 2 of Article 408 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. 

At the same time, he was sentenced for the totality of the committed crimes, including treason and aiding the Russian Federation in waging an aggressive war against Ukraine, for which he was sentenced to 13 years of imprisonment by the Obolon District Court of Kyiv on January 24, 2019.

The former Deputy Head of the State Guard of Ukraine was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment for organizing the illegal transportation of individuals across the state border of Ukraine and desertion under Part 2 of Article 332 and Part 2 of Article 408 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

Prosecutors in court proved that on February 23, 2014, the former President of Ukraine, acting in collusion with the former Head of the Security Service of the President and with the assistance of representatives of the Russian Federation, illegally crossed the state border of Ukraine by air and organized the transportation of at least 20 individuals from among his close associates and military personnel of the State Guard.

The flight was conducted outside the checkpoints for air communication across the state border. The convicted individuals flew out on three Russian military helicopters piloted by a pilot from the armed forces of the Russian Federation from the vicinity of the village of Urzuf in the Mangush district of Donetsk region to a military airfield in the city of Yeisk (RF). Subsequently, the route passed through the city of Anapa, and later – on a military transport aircraft provided by the armed forces of the Russian Federation, to the military airfield "Gvardeyskoye" on the territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.

Later, the former President made the decision to finally leave the territory of Ukraine with the assistance of the armed forces of the Russian Federation. While on the territory of a military unit of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation in the area of Kozacha Bay in Sevastopol, he incited the military personnel of the State Guard of Ukraine, who were providing his personal protection, to desert and leave for the Russian Federation.

As a result, part of the state guard personnel left with him by sea from Sevastopol to the Russian Federation and did not return to military service.

The route of the fleeing president's movement through the territory of Ukraine and the Russian Federation was fully controlled and accompanied by employees of the Federal Protective Service and military personnel of the Southern Military District of the Russian Federation and was coordinated directly with the President of the Russian Federation.