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Russia Jails Five Ukrainians for Alleged Terror Plot Amid Torture Claims
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A Russian court in Rostov-on-Don has sentenced five men from the temporarily occupied Ukrainian city of Melitopol to prison terms ranging from 11 to 14 years, accusing them of creating a “terrorist underground.”
The men, who include a Ukrainian Armed Forces contract soldier, a combat veteran, and three others from the territorial defense reserve, were sentenced on April 29, 2025.
The Russian publication Mediazona reported on April 28, that the court found the men guilty of allegedly planning to detonate a car bomb near a humanitarian aid distribution point in Melitopol.
The accused men were sentenced as follows: Ihor Horlov, 37, received a 14-year sentence; Andrii Holubev, 46, was sentenced to 12 years; Volodymyr Zuyev, 44, was sentenced to 11 years; Oleksandr Zhukov, 56, to 12 years; and Yurii Petrov, 64, to 14 years.
They are to serve the first five and a half years in prison, followed by time in a maximum-security colony.
The men were abducted in early April 2022 by Russian security forces, who detained them in underground prisons in Melitopol where they were subjected to physical abuse, including electric shocks and beatings.
One of the detainees attempted suicide due to threats against his family. After their abduction, they were transferred to temporarily occupied Crimea and later to the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center in Moscow.
The case includes statements signed by the accused during their initial interrogations, which the defense argues were obtained under torture and should not be considered evidence.
The men have denied planning attacks against civilians, with at least two requesting to be recognized as prisoners of war, as reported by the BBC.
During their detention, the defendants suffered significant personal loss. Two of them lost their parents, while the daughter of one of the men, who was just over two years old at the time of her father’s abduction, died due to the lack of medical care in occupied Melitopol.
In related news, an international investigation found that the body of Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchyna, who died in Russian captivity, was returned to Ukraine missing several internal organs, likely to obscure the cause of death.
