Russian Court Sentences 9 Ukrainians to 14–20 Years in Prison Colony for Allegedly Preparing Terrorist Attacks

A military court in Russia’s Rostov-on-Don has sentenced nine Ukrainian citizens to 14–20 years in prison on charges of allegedly preparing terrorist attacks against collaborator officials.

Source: Russian online outlet Mediazona; the Southern District Military Court of the Russian Federation on Telegram. This was reported by Ukrainska Pravda.

Details: According to the court, the Ukrainians allegedly took part in a “terrorist group led by officers of the Security Service of Ukraine” and allegedly prepared explosions using improvised explosive devices with the aim of “eliminating the leadership of the Kherson region’s military-civil administration and the Russian servicemen accompanying them.”

The longest sentences — 20 years in a penal colony — were handed to entrepreneur Kostiantyn Reznik and his associate Serhiy Kabakov, while the shortest sentences — 14 years — were given to former Ukrainian Armed Forces serviceman Denys Lialka and entrepreneur and Red Cross volunteer Yuriy Kaiiev.

Two other defendants — Yuriy Tavozhnianskyi, deputy head of the Kherson Port customs post, and Oleh Bohdanov, deputy head of the Kherson City Council’s department for transport, road infrastructure and communications — were each sentenced to 18 years in a penal colony.

Ukrainian Armed Forces serviceman Serhiy Kovalskyi, head of a fishing production facility Serhiy Heidt, and manager Serhiy Ofitserov were sentenced to 17 years in prison.

The case against the nine Ukrainians had been under court consideration since late 2023.

According to the prosecution, in the spring and summer of 2022 they allegedly, on instructions from the Security Service of Ukraine, planned a series of terrorist attacks in the occupied part of Kherson Oblast, including the killings of Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the pro-Russian administration, former head of the Kherson customs service Vitalii Buliuk, and other collaborator officials.

According to the investigation materials, all nine were allegedly detained on 6 October 2022 in Simferopol.

However, the Ukrainians themselves claim that they were abducted and tortured in the basement of the former National Police department in Kherson, where confessions were forced out of them between July–August and early October 2022.

In court, the defendants retracted their earlier testimony and stated that Russian security forces threatened to torture their family members if they did not sign documents and take part in staged “operational search activities.”

The Ukrainians also said that in Rostov Detention Center No. 1, where they had been held since the start of the trial, guards beat them during inspections and forced them to sing the Russian national anthem and “Katyusha.”