Russia fabricates absurd 'spying' charges against Ukrainian abducted from Kherson oblast in 2022

Russian propaganda media have announced that Vladyslav Bily whom they call “a Ukrainian spy” is to go on ‘trial’, accused of passing on information to Ukraine’s Armed Forces.  They do not mention that Bily was abducted by the Russian invaders of his Ukrainian home in Nova Kakhovka in March 2022 and has been illegally held hostage ever since.  Nor, of course, do they specify that the information he is supposed to have passed on was about the illegal movements and deployment of an invading army.

The Russians began abducting civilians from any Ukrainian territory that fell under its occupation, with the only information about many of the victims coming from sites launched to help people search for loved ones.  From one such site, we know that Vladyslav Bily is 37, that he was born on 21 March 1987 and is, seemingly, from Nova Kakhovka.  While the Russians often targeted those who had not concealed their opposition to the invasion and their pro-Ukrainian position, even this is not guaranteed as the invaders could have taken a shine to Bily’s car, or have simply grabbed him for no reason.  Having held him prisoner, without any charges, for two and a half years, it seems unlikely that he was caught (legitimately) passing information to Ukrainian defenders, but next to certain that he has been subjected to torture in order, among other things, to extract ‘a confession’.

The reports on 18 September stated that the Crimean occupation prosecutor had passed the ‘prosecution’ to the so-called ‘regional court’ in occupied Kherson oblast.  The charge of ‘spying’ is under Article 276 of Russia’s criminal code and carries a sentence of from 10 to 20 years’ imprisonment.  Although the use of a fake ‘court’ on illegally occupied territory means that there is no possibility of monitoring this ‘trial’, all such ‘spying trials’ are held behind closed doors.  Even where the person is not prevented from having an independent lawyer, the latter is forced to sign a non-disclosure agreement and faces criminal persecution for revealing any but the broadest of details.  

For this reason, it seems likely that the planned ‘trial’ of Vladyslav Bily was reported purely for propaganda purposes, as will be the ‘sentence’, passed by an illegitimate and unrecognized ‘court’.  Russian and Russian occupation propaganda sources have even resorted to ‘sentencing’ Ukrainians twice or, at least, reporting such sentences twice without any acknowledgement of the duplication.  In June 2024, for example, propaganda media reported the sentences against three Ukrainians-  Oleksandr Sunahatulin; Vladyslav Kryvy and Oleksandr Protsiuk as though they had just been passed, although the sentences against two of the men, probably three (with the surname spelt slightly differently) had been reported from November 2023 to January 2024.  It is to be hoped that Russia confined itself to boasting of the illegal sentences twice, without repeating the torture.

Oleksandr Sunahatulin had been abducted from his home in Liubymivka (Kherson oblast) on 11 January 2023. He too was charged with having passed on Russian military coordinates to the Ukrainian Armed Forces and sentenced to 11 years in a maximum security prison colony.   Oleksandr Protsiuk, from Kherson oblast, was sentenced on 12 January 2024 by the Rostov regional court to 11 years’ maximum-security imprisonment.  This too was on ‘spying’ charges, as were those against 30-year-old  Vladyslav Kryvy, a lecturer at Kherson State Agrarian Economic University. He was seized by the Russians in April 2022, but only sentenced in November 2023 to 12 years’ maximum-security imprisonment. 

All such ‘prosecutions’ and ‘trials’ are in violation of international law since Russia, as occupying power, as no right to apply its legislation on occupied territory.  They also pay no heed to the victims’ right to a fair trial, as well as the absolute ban on torture

See also:

Iryna Horobtsova Horrific sentence against Kherson woman for claimed ‘spying’ long after Russia had abducted and imprisoned her

Serhiy Arefiev  Savage torture and 11-year sentence for opposing Russia’s occupation of Kherson

Serhiy Tsyhipa  Abducted and tortured Ukrainian writer and journalist Serhiy Tsyhipa sentenced to 13 years on surreal charges