67-Year-Old Crimean blacksmith Oleg Prikhodko faces life sentence

Oleg Prikhodko, a 67-year-old blacksmith from Crimea and a veteran of the Maidan protests, is facing the prospect of life imprisonment. This marks the fourth criminal case brought against him by Russian authorities since the annexation of the peninsula.

A vocal opponent of the occupation, Oleg Prikhodko was a familiar figure in his local community for flying the Ukrainian flag at his home and refusing to swap his Ukrainian number plates for Russian ones — acts of defiance that led to frequent confrontations with the police.

His legal ordeal began in 2019 when he was detained on suspicion of plotting a terrorist attack. During a search of his property, investigators claimed to have discovered a block of TNT, which Oleg Prikhodko maintained had been planted. In 2021, he was sentenced to five years in prison, convicted of allegedly planning to bomb the municipal administration building in Saky and set fire to the Russian consulate in Lviv.

His sentence was further extended in 2022 after he insulted an FSB investigator during court proceedings, resulting in an additional conviction and a one-month penalty.

According to his daughter, Oleg Prikhodko’s time in custody has been defined by brutality. She reports that he has been repeatedly subjected to electric shocks, denied essential medical care, and held frequently in solitary confinement.

Oleg Prikhodko was originally scheduled for release in 2024, but a third case was launched against him in 2023. Based on the testimony of fellow inmates, he was accused of the ‘rehabilitation of Nazism’ and ‘incitement to terrorism’ during private conversations in his cell. He was subsequently sentenced to an additional four and a half years. Following an appeal, the term was reduced by a single month, pushing his expected release date to 2028.

Currently held in Penal Colony No. 2 in Russia’s Krasnodar region, Oleg Prikhodko now faces his fourth prosecution: a charge of high treason. The Federal Security Service (FSB) alleges that, while behind bars, he attempted to convince other prisoners to enlist with the Russian Ministry of Defence for the sole purpose of surrendering to Ukrainian forces once they reached the front lines.

The FSB has publicised the case through a video featuring an anonymous inmate in the Krasnodar colony. ‘We spoke about various things, about politics,’ the prisoner says on camera. ‘He told me how glad he was about what happened at Maidan… I didn’t like what he was saying. Then he learned I was planning to go to the special military operation to atone before my country. He told me not to do it, and that even if you go… if you shoot one of the commanders, surrender and say “Glory to Ukraine!”, everything will be fine.’

The latest charges involve assisting terrorist activity and the preparation to incite treason. As with his previous convictions, the prosecution’s case rests heavily on the testimony of his fellow prisoners.