Russia handed down convictions to 23 Ukrainian prisoners on terrorism charges in a military court proceeding on Wednesday. Kyiv sharply criticized the trial as a fraudulent show that violates international law. According to Russian news reports and rights activists, the convicted individuals include members or former members of the Azov brigade, which Russia labeled a terrorist organization. Among them were also personnel working as cooks and other support staff.
The Russian human rights group, Memorial, has declared these defendants as political prisoners. They noted that several were captured during the fierce battles in Mariupol in 2022, particularly at the Azovstal steel mill where Ukrainians resisted the Russian military. Others were seized while attempting to evacuate after the city fell to Russian forces.
During the trial in Rostov-on-Don, only 12 of the accused were present. The other 11, including nine women, had returned to Ukraine following prisoner swaps and were thus convicted in absentia. One individual from the group passed away in custody last year, leading to the termination of charges against him.
Charges against them included orchestrating a violent coup and contributing to terrorist group operations. Some faced further accusations of training for terrorist activities. Sentences issued ranged from 13 to 23 years, with the men still detained in Russia destined for high-security penal colonies. All 12 remaining plan to appeal the decision, according to an independent Russian news site, Mediazona.
Memorial highlighted that none of those on trial were accused of committing war crimes; rather, their prosecution stemmed from mere affiliation with Azov at some point. Ukraine’s human rights envoy, Dmytro Lubinets, condemned the trial back in June 2023 as an unjust spectacle conceived for Russia’s entertainment.
“’Russia’ and ‘fair justice’ are mutually exclusive,” Lubinets previously stated. He called on the global community to address these disgraceful trials targeting Ukrainian defenders. He argued that the true wrongdoers are those who instigated the military aggression and invaded Ukraine.
In that same month, Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to the Ukrainian President, deemed the trial of these combatants as an “official war crime” that the International Criminal Court should respond to. Petro Yatsenko of the Ukrainian Coordination Center for Prisoner of War Treatment echoed this, criticizing the trial for breaching the Geneva Conventions regarding prisoner treatment.
The court venue, Rostov-on-Don, is situated in Russia’s Southern Military District, approximately 100 kilometers from Ukraine’s border. Mediazona reported abuse allegations from the defendants, detailing beatings, broken bones, interrogations with covered heads, food tainted by chemicals, and forced exertion, including the singing of the Russian national anthem.
Such claims are consistent with accounts from both Russian and global human rights groups about the systematic mistreatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilian captives under Russian detention.