One trial after another. Mediazona investigation finds Ukrainian prisoners of war in Russia are being prosecuted again and again

How we counted and what we couldn’t find out

We used press releases from the Investigative Committee, Russia’s main federal investigating authority, and the Prosecutor General’s Office, reports from state news agencies, and court records. We reached out for clarification from the press service of the Southern District Military Court and from those lawyers of Ukrainian prisoners whose names we were able to learn. Most of the defenders declined to speak with us, while those who agreed requested anonymity.

We learned about the sentences handed down in Donetsk primarily from the press releases of law enforcement agencies; the Supreme Court of the Donetsk People’s Republic only began publishing case files in December 2024, and details of many cases are still missing from its website.

It was often unclear from the reports whether the stated punishment was the final sentence, combining multiple verdicts, or simply the term for the most recent conviction. In one press release, the sentence length was incorrect, and in several others, the articles of the charge did not match the information on the court’s website. In three instances, we were unable to confirm the full names of the accused.

Some of the military personnel mentioned in this text may have already been returned to Ukraine through prisoner exchanges, but there are no official public lists.

For these reasons, our findings should be considered an incomplete picture. We are certain that the actual number of repeat cases against Ukrainian military personnel is far higher than what we were able to document.

Donetsk

At least 26 Ukrainians have been convicted twice by the DPR’s Supreme Court. The charges are typically murder or attempted murder, destruction of property, cruel treatment of civilians, and the use of prohibited methods of warfare. As a rule, the second trial is based on very similar charges under the same articles of the criminal code.

One case is particularly illustrative of the practice in Donetsk. Ten fighters from the Azov Brigade were sentenced, and each was later tried a second time, with some facing a third trial.

Artem Vyshnyak, Serhii Haikovych, Dmytro Kucheryavyy, Dmytro Klusenko, Yevhenii Lavrenko, Ivan Nozhechkin, Serhii Samokhval, Semyon Severyn, Denys Fedirko, and Yehor Yakovenko were among the Ukrainian soldiers who, on the orders of their command, left the besiegd Azovstal plant in Mariupol on May 18, 2022, and surrendered to Russian forces.

On March 22, 2024, the DPR Supreme Court sentenced them to terms ranging from 22 to 22 and a half years in a strict-regime colony. They were charged with cruel treatment of civilians, attempted murder of two or more people motivated by hatred, and destruction of property. The investigation alleged they had carried out mortar shelling of a residential area “on the western outskirts” of Mariupol between March 7 and April 15, 2022.

By August 2024, a new case against Klusenko, Lavrenko, and Fedirko was brought before the same court. On December 20, they were sentenced again, this time to 24 and a half years in prison each. According to the investigation, on March 13, 2022, the three servicemen had shelled the village of Agrobaza near Mariupol, damaging a house and outbuildings. The charges were identical to those in their first trial.

On June 16, 2025, Nozhechkin and Yakovenko were sentenced to 25 and 26 years respectively. The prosecutor’s office claimed that Nozhechkin, a mortar battery commander, had ordered the shelling of Agrobaza in March 2022, and Yakovenko had carried it out. “As a result, two private houses, where civilians were hiding in the basement, were damaged. The people managed to escape,” the statement said. The charges were exactly the same as in the first case.

On June 26, 2025, Vyshnyak, Haikovych, Samokhval, and Severyn received sentences of 23 to 23 and a half years for shelling the village of Berdianske in March 2022, which damaged four houses. This time, they were also charged with the attempted murder of a minor, but the other charges remained unchanged.

In the case of the ten Azov prisoners, the second sentence added between one and four years to their terms, which is typical for the DPR Supreme Court. The largest increase Mediazona found was for marine Yevhenii Yermolenko, who received a 17-year sentence in November 2023, which was extended to 25 years in October 2024.

A few repeat cases in Donetsk deviate from this pattern. For marine Maxim Chernushenko and military paramedic Vitaly Matvienko, the final sentence was identical to the first. Chernushenko was convicted in October 2023 and again in February 2024, both times to 25 years. Matvienko was sentenced to 30 years in November 2023, and received the exact same term in his second trial in August 2024.

In at least eight cases, the second sentence handed down by the DPR Supreme Court was life imprisonment.

Two other prisoners, engineering company commander Oleksandr Svynarchuk and marine Dmytro Shalar, were given life sentences in their first trial, and their second sentences simply reiterated the life term.

Only one prisoner, Azov driving instructor Oleksii Kyrkalov, received a shorter sentence in his second trial. After being sentenced to life in May 2023, he was given an additional 18 years in September 2024.

Rostov

Many of the Ukrainians convicted in Donetsk who served in the Azov Brigade are subsequently tried again in the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don. These trials are typically on charges of training for terrorism and participation in a terrorist community. Russia has designated the Azov and Aidar units as “terrorist organisations”, and these charges are standard for their members.

The charges in these cases are often vague, stating only that the prisoner “acquired knowledge, practical skills and abilities” in physical and psychological training, first aid, and handling weapons and explosives, or that they “voluntarily joined [Azov], signed a contract, and were provided with a military uniform, firearms, and ammunition”.

As the human rights organisation Memorial has mentioned, Azov and Aidar prisoners are effectively “charged with the fact that they served in a unit of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the territory of the state of which they are citizens”.

Mediazona found 12 such repeat cases, most of which were filed in the summer of 2025. For those who have already been re-sentenced, the terms have increased only slightly, even though the “terrorist’ charges carry penalties up to life imprisonment.

Leonid Hlushchenko, Yevhenii Horiaynov, Artem Filin, and seven other Azov servicemen have been tried in the DPR Supreme Court since January 29, 2024. The investigation alleged that in February and March 2022, they had carried out “indiscriminate shelling” of residential areas, damaging five homes. The Investigative Committee admitted that no civilians were injured. On March 18, 2024, the ten prisoners were sentenced to between 26 and 27 years in a colony.

New cases were then brought against at least three of them – Hlushchenko, Horiaynov, and Filin – on charges of participation in a terrorist community and training for terrorism. They were tried separately in Rostov-on-Don. Horiaynov’s trial is ongoing. Filin and Hlushchenko have already been sentenced, with their total terms increased to 28 years.

The Investigative Committee reported the first sentence of Artur Syvitskii and two of his fellow servicemen in August 2023. The press release stated they had fired on a car with civilians in Mariupol, “believing that they supported the special military operation”. The passengers escaped unharmed, and the three defendants received 20 years in a colony colony each.

A press release about the first sentence of Ihor Kim appeared on the Investigative Committee’s Telegram channel in November 2023. According to the agency, Kim had followed “knowingly illegal orders to open fire from a mortar on residential buildings”. The Donetsk court sentenced him to 24 years.

New cases against Kim and Syvitskii were filed in Rostov-on-Don on the same day, June 18, 2025. They were later sentenced to 27 and 28 years respectively.

Rifleman-grenadier Andrii Barabanov, initially sentenced to 22 years for allegedly shooting a passer-by in Mariupol, had his term increased to 27 years in a Rostov court. Bohdan Beznosko, who received 25 years in Donetsk for a mortar attack, was later sentenced to 28 years in Rostov on “terrorism” charges. Four other soldiers—Anatolii Kiliushyk, Maksym Melnykov, Danylo (Daniil) Ovcharenko, and Artem Synelnyk—are awaiting verdicts in their second trials after receiving initial sentences of 23.5 to 27 years.

The case of Dmitry Yudin is particularly unusual. After a 19-year sentence in Rostov, a second case was filed against him in Donetsk on charges including murder and use of prohibited methods of warfare. However, the case was returned to the prosecutor to be reclassified as a “more serious crime”. A lawyer told Mediazona that Yudin, who holds both Ukrainian and Russian citizenship, is also facing a charge of treason.

Why is this happening?

Lawyers who spoke to Mediazona on condition of anonymity said that for the security services, repeat cases are a convenient way to improve their performance statistics. Additionally, in the eyes of the Russian authorities, these sentences serve a symbolic purpose: ensuring that “someone is held guilty for the death of every civilian, for the destruction of every house”.

“It’s about ticking boxes,” one lawyer familiar with the practice told Mediazona. She believes that life sentences are “not an end in itself”, which is why the combined sentences are not significantly longer.

“I think there are different jurisdictions at play. As a rule, charges related to methods of warfare are the jurisdiction of the Investigative Committee, and terrorism charges are the jurisdiction of the FSB. Everyone wants to get their ‘tick’,” she said. “It’s a report: look, we investigated, look what we found.”

“And the Mariupol cases are special,” she added. “They are needed so that for every civilian death, for every destroyed house, someone is found guilty.”

A Donetsk lawyer, court-appointed to represent a Ukrainian serviceman, explained the repeat cases by claiming that the investigation uncovers new details over time. He described jurisprudence as “one of the most inexact sciences” and said that judicial practice “may differ slightly in each region” and depends on the “inner conviction” of the court, which “no one dictates”.

A third lawyer told Mediazona that the repeat cases serve a political goal: “to form a judicial practice related to the atrocities of Ukrainian nationalists, their oppression and extermination of the pro-Russian population of Donbas”. She believes the Russian authorities are trying to “justify the invasion” and to solidify in court sentences the propagandistic image of Ukraine “as a nationalist and pro-fascist state”.

Twice convicted in absentia

Mediazona is aware of at least six cases where Ukrainian servicemen were tried multiple times in absentia. The criminal prosecution of two prisoners continued even after they were returned to Ukraine in an exchange.

Multiple life sentences were handed down to high-ranking Ukrainian commanders, including Yevhenii Bova (three separate times), Dmytro Khrapach, Rostyslav Karpusha, and Yevhenii Bulatsik, for ordering attacks on Russian-held territory.

In some cases, soldiers were tried after being returned to Ukraine. Denys Zhuchkov, an Azov Brigade member freed in a prisoner exchange in September 2022, was subsequently sentenced in absentia to 16 years and then to life for alleged war crimes.

Convicted three times

Mediazona found that 3 criminal cases have been brought against at least 6 Ukrainian servicemen. 4 of them have already been sentenced for a 3rd time.

Dmytro Kucheryavyy, Serhii Samokhval, Semen Severin, and Yehor Yakovenko were among the ten servicemen sentenced by the DPR Supreme Court on March 22, 2024, to terms of 22 to 22 and a half years.

In October 2024, a second case was filed against Severin, Samokhval, and two others. They were sentenced to terms of 23 to 23 and a half years. Severin and Samokhval were then tried separately in Rostov-on-Don on standard “terrorism” charges. Samokhval has not yet been sentenced. On September 19, Severin was sentenced to 25 years.

Yakovenko and Kucheryavyy were tried a second time in Rostov. Yakovenko’s sentence was increased to 26 years. Kucheryavy was given 29 years. On April 28, 2025, a thrd case against Kucheryavyy was brought before the Donetsk court, and on May 30, he was sentenced again, with his total punishment amounting to 29 years and 4 months.

On June 16, the Donetsk court found Yakovenko guilty for a third time for shelling the village of Agrobaza. His term was increased to 26 years.

The DPR Supreme Court has sentenced 47-year-old marine company commander Leonid Onupko to life imprisonment three times. According to press releases, the charges relate to his “criminal orders” to kill civilians in Mariupol, resulting in 11 deaths.

In September 2023, the Donetsk court sentenced Azov mortarman Eduard Varbanskyy to 22 years for shelling a school building. On July 31, the Investigative Committee announced a new investigation into Varbansky for shelling residential buildings. His second case was filed in Donetsk on September 19. A third case against him, on “terrorism” charges, was filed in Rostov on August 12. The verdicts in both cases are still pending.

With Alla Konstantinova, Sergey Golubev and the Mediazona Data Department

Editor: Dmitry Tkachev