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The Tribunal for Putin (T4P) global initiative was set up in response to the all-out war launched by Russia against Ukraine in February 2022.

Huge conveyor belt sentences against Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant engineer, other Ukrainians whom Russia abducted and tortured

18.10.2024   
Halya Coynash
One of three Ukrainians, sentenced in supposedly separate ‘trials’, although on virtually identical charges, had probably been abducted in the first weeks of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine

Serhiy Korzh Screenshot from the Russian occupation ’prosecutor’s’ video

Serhiy Korzh Screenshot from the Russian occupation ’prosecutor’s’ video

Russia’s prosecutor general announced on 11 October that the illegal occupation ‘Zaporizhzhia regional court’ had sentenced Serhiy Korzh, identified only as a 48-year-old Ukrainian citizen, to 13 years on ‘spying’ charges under Article 276 of Russia’s criminal code.  The report did not mention that Korzh was an engineer at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant [ZNPP], probably one of the many employees whom Russia began abducting and torturing after the plant fell under its occupation in March 2022. 

Russia has been taking civilians hostage since the first days of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.  While it is still refusing to reveal the whereabouts of many hostages and may well have killed others, there are an ever-increasing number whom it accuses of ‘spying’ and sentences to huge terms of imprisonment in a maximum-security prison colony. 

The indictment in all these cases differs mainly in the dates cited and, of course, the victim’s name.  Here it was claimed that Korzh had, from June to August 2022, gathered information regarding the places where units of the Russian ‘national guard’ and their technology were deployed in Zaporizhzhia oblast, and passed this to an officer of Ukraine’s Military Intelligence.  The same sentence is invariably copy-pasted from one such report to another, namely that “the information passed on could have been used to direct strikes against the places where Russian military were deployed.”

No mention is ever made of the fact that those Russian soldiers were part of an invading army that was, in violation of international law, waging a war of aggression against Ukraine.  Nor do they acknowledge the international rejection of Russia’s claim that occupied Ukrainian territory ‘joined the Russian Federation’ in September 2022 and non-recognition of any supposed ‘courts’ on illegally occupied territory.

Information about such appalling ‘sentences’ is almost always reported after the alleged ‘trial’ has taken place, with nothing to suggest that the person ‘on trial’ had access to a proper lawyer, nor any details as to whether this process took more than the time needed to announce the sentence and video the victim in the court cage.  The identity is also unknown of the ‘prosecutor’ and ‘judges’ implicated in this illegal travesty.

Serhiy Spartesny Photo posted by Dmytro Orlov, Mayor of Enerhodar
Serhiy Spartesny Photo posted by Dmytro Orlov, Mayor of Enerhodar

This was the second sentence against an employee of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in the last month.  On 20 September 2024, 62-year-old Serhiy Spartesny was ‘sentenced’ by the same illegitimate ‘Zaporizhzhia regional court’’ to 12 years’ maximum-security imprisonment.  Spartesny, the head of a turbine department shift at ZNPP, was seized by the Russians on 18 July 2023, and held incommunicado for over a year.  In late August 2024, it was announced that Spartesny was facing ‘trial’ on spying charges, with the information slightly different (about the types and registration numbers of the cars used by employees of one of the occupation ‘enforcement agencies’, but little else.  Nothing is known about the whereabouts of another employee, Serhiy Potynh, who was abducted on 23 June 2023, with reason to fear that he was subjected to savage torture.

Despite claiming that the ‘sentences’ are passed by the occupation ‘Zaporizhzhia regional court’. It is the Russian occupation ‘Crimean prosecutor’ who generally reports them.  This unrecognized body reported three ‘spying’ sentences on 11 October, with the texts clearly written to a template, with different names and place of residence. 

Serhiy Popov Screenshot from the Russian occupation ’prosecutor’s’ video
Serhiy Popov Screenshot from the Russian occupation ’prosecutor’s’ video

Serhiy Popov, according to the report, is 45 and was living in the Yakymivka raion (Zaporizhzhia oblast).  The indictment is virtually identical to that against Korzh, except that the Russian armed forces are mentioned, and not the Russian national guard. The alleged ‘spying’ is supposed to have taken place in May 2023.

Oleksandr Zhukov Screenshot from the Russian occupation ’prosecutor’s’ video
Oleksandr Zhukov Screenshot from the Russian occupation ’prosecutor’s’ video

36-year-old Oleksandr Zhukov may well have been abducted very early as the charge of ‘spying’ pertains to the same ‘passing of information’, etc. in Melitopol “from February to March 2022.  He was sentenced to 12 years.  He is the second Oleksandr Zhukov to be abducted by the Russian invaders from Melitopol and then accused of absurd charges.

Russia as an occupying power would, under any circumstances, be violating international law through these alleged trials and sentences of Ukrainians seized on occupied territory.  All of the above men are also civilian hostages, whom Russian held incommunicado for very long periods, with such secrecy probably meaning that they were subjected to torture.

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