More than 40 criminal ‘terrorism’ cases against Ukrainians were filed with the Southern District Military Court in December

In December, the Southern District Military Court in Rostov on Don accepted more than 40 criminal cases against Ukrainian citizens for consideration, setting a new record for the monthly increase in such cases. The defendants are accused of a range of serious offences linked to alleged involvement in terrorist activities.

As in previous months, the majority of cases concern alleged participation in the Aidar and Azov battalions. One such case involves 46 year old Nikolai Salo, who is accused of being a member of Aidar. According to Russian investigators, in August 2014 Salo, ‘while in the Starobilsk district, voluntarily joined the Aidar battalion’ and ‘took part in military operations against civilians and the Russian Armed Forces on the territory of the Luhansk People’s Republic’. His contemporary, 45 year old Aleksandr Gorenov, is also accused of having ties to the same Ukrainian Armed Forces unit.

A significant proportion of the defendants are alleged former members of the Azov Battalion. Most are young men, some of whom were captured during the fighting at Azovstal in May 2022 and have remained in detention since then. All are charged with participation in a terrorist organisation and training in terrorist activities. Among them are:

Artem Domshenko (28),
Pavel Korostelev (26),
Artem Zubov (30),
Igor Gordienko (32),
Yuriy Kondratsky (27),
Ivan Butenko (27),
Maksim Voynikov (37),
Evgeny Kolomeyko (33),
Maksim Romanyuk (34),
Vladislav Ruchka (28),
Aleksandr Azarov (39),
Maksim Dubrov (28),
Vladimir Mityun (27),
Ilya Aldakimov (34),
Andrey Teterkin (49),
Vadim Bezugly (27),
Ilya Dovbnya (39),
Vladislav Kormilin (30),
Mikhail Nasonov (49),
Maksim Bozhko (37),
Yuriy Trifanov (30),
Vladislav Zarzhitsky (27),
Artem Sirik (49),
Artem Kushakov (36),
Viktor Kuzmenko (54),
Denis Golub (28),
Denis Savorovsky (34),
Aleksey Miroshnichenko (43),
Gennady Bybochkin (36),
Taras Koshman (43).

At least two of them, Ruchka and Dubrov, have already been sentenced by the so called ‘Supreme Court of the DPR’ to lengthy prison terms of 24 and 28 years respectively. In the final days of the year, judges in Rostov also sentenced Voynikov and Kolomeyko to prison terms, although the lengths of those sentences have not been disclosed.

Aleksey Brunko (44) became a defendant in a criminal case due to his alleged participation in the Donbass battalion.

Cases under the same articles are also set to be heard against Aleksandr Tikhonov (40), a native of the Khmelnytsky region, Sergey Kopylov (50), and residents of Enerhodar, Anatoly Rudenko (53) and Dmitry Nosenko (42). It has not yet been possible to establish which Ukrainian Armed Forces units they may have been affiliated with.

Several cases involve residents of the Donetsk region, though little information about them is publicly available. Forty five year old Aleksey Karpenko is charged with desertion, incitement to extremism, justification of terrorism, possession of explosives, participation in a terrorist organisation, preparation and training for terrorist attacks, and treason. Twenty five year old Aleksey Cherkasov faces three counts of committing terrorist acts, as well as charges of justifying terrorism, rehabilitating Nazism, training and assisting terrorist activity, participating in a terrorist organisation, and treason.

Twenty three year old Anton Kadykov from Melitopol was brought before a court in Rostov on charges of committing a terrorist act, assisting terrorism, training in terrorist activity, and possession of explosives. Another defendant, Donetsk resident Vladimir Plakhota (32), is also listed in one of the cases, although his profile on the court’s website contains no information.

Olga Kiriya (52) is charged with ‘justifying terrorism on the internet’, a charge that typically stems from social media posts.

In the final month of the year, judges at the Southern District Military Court also set a new record for the number of convictions handed down to Ukrainian defendants in a single month, issuing sentences in 28 cases between 1 and 30 December.