A Russian occupation ‘court’ has sentenced 55-year-old Ruslan Lavryk to 16 years in a maximum-security prison colony because of the Ukrainian engineers donation to the Ukrainian Armed Forces defending his country. The Russian citizenship which Lavryk had been forced to accept in January 2024 was used as excuse for charging him with ‘state treason’ under Article 275 of Russia’s criminal code.
Ruslan Lavryk (b.24.09.1970) is from Enerhodar and a radio and television engineer at the neighbouring Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant [ZNPP]. Both the plant and the city linked with it have been under Russian occupation since early March 2022 and Lavryk is one of a considerable number of Ukrainian employees at the plant to have either been tortured to death or abducted and then imprisoned on absurd ‘spying’ or ‘treason’ charges. He was seized in June 2024, with no information about him at all until the announcement of this sentence, passed by the illegitimate ‘Zaporizhzhia regional court’. It is entirely unclear whether there even was a ‘trial’ before the passing of sentence, and almost certain that Lavryk did not have access to an independent lawyer. Dmytro Orlov, Mayor of Enerhodar, reports that, after such a long period of imprisonment and torture (to which virtually all hostages are subjected), Lavryk has heart problems and urgently needs to be hospitalized.
The ‘court press service’ report on the sentence says that it was for “financing the Ukrainian Armed Forces and spying”. It is from this report that we know when Lavryk took Russian citizenship and no mention, of course, is made of the immense coercion used and the effective impossibility of living on occupied territory without a Russian passport. It is this that makes the charge of ‘treason’ so cynical, as Lavryk is essentially accused only of support for Ukraine. He is said to have been negative about what Russia euphemistically calls its ‘special military operation’ [i.e. full-scale invasion of Ukraine] and about Russian policy [as occupying power, although this too is omitted].
He is accused of having made two money transfers to support Ukraine’s Armed Forces, first in April 2024, then a month later. Russia has been hunting down Ukrainians on occupied territory making such donations, and it does seem possible that the Internet post with a link for donations may have been a trap.
It is also claimed that, at the request of “a Ukrainian citizen” living in Zaporizhzhia, he passed on the coordinates of a Russian military unit posted on the exit from Enerhodar. Almost comically, the report cites “an expert assessment” before repeating verbatim the phrase copy-pasted from ‘trial’ to ‘trial’, namely that such information could be used by Ukraine’s Armed Forces to carry out strikes on the posts. This element of the charges is interesting mainly for what it does not even try to assert, with the claim normally being that a person is working for Ukraine’s Security Service or Military Intelligence.
The sentence was both for 16 years’ maximum-security imprisonment and then for a further year’s restricted liberty. No mention is made of the fact that the sentence is subject to appeal, although there is nothing to suggest that Lavryk ‘admitted to treason’.
In December 2024, Dmytro Orlov informed the Centre for Journalist Investigations that at least twelve Enerhodar residents were imprisoned by the Russians, with most of them employees of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. Over a thousand Ukrainian civilians had been seized by the Russians and held in torture prisons since the beginning of the occupation, he said, with many released after several days or, at least, several weeks. Russia is increasingly using ‘spying’ or ‘treason’ charges, with this, in fact, true of all illegally occupied territory, not only ZNPP and Enerhodar, with donations to Ukraine’s Armed Forces often used as the stated reason.
See also:
Oleksandr Markov
Russia kills 74-year-old Ukrainian political prisoner abducted from occupied Enerhodar
Vadym Trachuk
Oleh Morochkovsky
Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant guard savagely tortured to blame Ukraine for Russia’s war crimes
Serhiy Potynh
Oleh Morochkovsky and Dmytro Yevsieliev Abducted Ukrainians tortured into claiming Ukraine carried out Russia’s attack on Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant
Lilia Kachariova and S.N. Dovhopola
Huge sentences and videoed ‘repentance’ in Russia’s mounting terror in occupied Zaporizhzhia oblast
Nalalia Shulha
Tetiana Klochko
Russia sentences Ukrainian to 12 years on fake Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant ‘terrorism’ charges
Serhiy Spartesny
Serhiy Korzh
Serhiy Korzh was abducted together with his twin brother Oleksandr Korzh, who worked for the State Centre on Nuclear and Radiation Safety. Serhiy last saw his brother in SIZO No. 2, an FSB-controlled remand prison in occupied Simferopol, back in December 2022. According to the Centre for Journalist Investigations, nothing has been heard of him since.
Oleksiy Brazhnyk
Another ZNPP engineer, Brazhnyk was last seen in February 2023, when the Russians produced a propaganda video, claiming to have ‘deported’ him (details here Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant engineer held and tortured by Russian invaders for over a year)
Andriy Honcharuk
Honcharuk, a diver for ZNPP, was reportedly tortured to death in early July 2022 after he refused to take part in their attempt to get the water emptied from the cooling system.
Andriy Nudha was seized by the Russians on 15 April 2023, and sentenced to 12 years later on ‘terrorism’ charges, seemingly linked with Russia’s persecution of Vadym Trachuk.
Oleksandr Matiukhin, another ZNPP employee, was abducted on 14 March 2023 and sentenced, in September 2024 to 13 years on supposed ‘spying’ charges.
