Russia convicts captured Ukrainians on terrorism charges in a trial Kyiv denounces as a sham

Russia on Wednesday convicted 23 captured Ukrainians on terrorism charges stemming from the fighting in Ukraine in a trial that Kyiv denounced as a sham and a violation of international law.

The defendants included 14 current or former fighters of the elite Azov brigade, which Russia designated a terrorist group, and nine women and one man who worked as cooks or support personnel, according to Russian media reports and rights activists. Twelve defendants were not in court — 11 had returned to Ukraine in two prisoner exchanges and were convicted in absentia. One more died in custody last year, and the case against him had been closed.

All had been charged with staging a violent coup d’etat and organizing the activities of a terrorist organization. Some faced an additional charge of training to carry out terrorist activities.

Those convicted were given sentences ranging from 13 to 23 years in prison. The 12 men still in Russian custody will serve their sentences in maximum security penal colonies, according to the court ruling.

Memorial, a prominent Russian rights group that won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022, has designated all the defendants as political prisoners. According to Memorial, some of them were captured in 2022 during fighting in the port city of Mariupol, where they held out at the Azovstal steel mill, besieged by Russian troops. Others were detained as they tried to leave the city after it was overrun by Russian forces, the group said.

Ukraine’s human rights envoy, Dmytro Lubinets, denounced the proceedings when they began in June 2023 as “another sham trial” held for Russia’s “own amusement.”

“‘Russia’ and ‘fair justice’ have nothing in common. The world must respond to such shameful sham trials of Ukrainian defenders,” Lubinets said at the time. “It is obvious to everyone that those who should be in the dock are not those defending themselves but those who initiated the aggression, those who invaded foreign land with weapons, and those who arrived with tanks on the territory of an independent state!”

That same month, Ukraine’s presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said on X that the trial of combatants amounted to “an official war crime” that warrants a response from the International Criminal Court.

Petro Yatsenko, a representative of the Ukrainian Coordination Center for the Treatment of POWs, echoed his sentiment in remarks quoted by the Hromadske news outlet, saying the proceedings violated the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of prisoners of war.

The trial was held in a military court in Rostov-on-Don, where Russia’s Southern Military District is headquartered, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of the border with Ukraine.

Russian independent news site Mediazona reported that the defendants testified about abuse behind bars during the trial, saying they were severely beaten and had their bones broken, were interrogated with bags over their heads, were given food laced with household chemicals and were forced to stand all day long and sing the Russian anthem.

These allegations are in line with reports by Russian and international human rights groups that detail systematic abuse of Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilian captives in the Russian custody.