Russians abduct and torture father and teenage son from occupied Luhansk oblast

Artem Kudzhanov, imprisoned since he was abducted and tortured as a teenager in October 2022, is about to ‘go on trial’ in occupied Luhansk oblast, accused of ‘spying’ for Ukraine’s Security Service [SBU].  Although a long sentence is near certain, it is by no means guaranteed that any ‘court proceedings’ will, in fact, take place, with the verdict generally announced post-fact by the Russian prosecutor or Investigative committee.

Russia’s so-called ‘Luhansk people’s republic’ [LPR] occupation prosecutor reported on 7 March that the young Ukrainian, who is now 21, is to go on trial, with the lad, his face blurred, shown very clearly trying to remember the words of his supposed ‘confession and repentance’.  No mention was made in this report of the fact that Artem has been in Russian captivity since he was abducted in October 2022. Nor did the report mention that the ‘spying’ charges were only laid recently, after a year in which nothing was known of Artem’s whereabouts, and then the claim that he was charged with a ‘knowingly false report about a terrorist attack’. Russian propaganda media went one step further, claiming that the young man had only now been ’detained’. 

In 2022, Artem Kudzhanov was living with his family in the Luhansk oblast village of Bahachka ( and was a student at a college in Siverskodonetsk, training to be a car mechanic.  Both Siverskodonetsk and Bahachka fell under Russian occupation after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022. 

The Media Initiative for Human Rights [MIHR] reports that armed men from the ‘LPR ministry of state security’ burst into the Kudzhanov’s family home on 28 October 2022.  They carried out a search, during which they found a military uniform from Artem’s elder brother’s military service, as well as something they considered ‘suspicious’ on Artem’s telephone. 

Both Artem who was 19 and his 20-year-old brother were taken to an occupation ‘police station’.  Artem’s brother was released after several days, but not Artem, who was beaten, and, probably, tortured.

Artem disappeared, with his family knowing nothing of his whereabouts or even whether he was alive for over a year.  In the summer of 2024, they learned that Artem was charged, under Russian legislation, with ‘a knowingly false report about a terrorist attack’.

By then, Artem was not the only member of the Kudzhanov family to have been abducted.  At the beginning of February 2024, Artem’s father, 50-year-old Ibragim Kudzhanov was seized by men in uniform from hospital.

Ibragim was charged because he had earlier taken part in Ukraine’s defence of Donbas, as part of the Aidar Battalion.  This battalion arose, in response to Russia’s military aggression in 2014, as a voluntary formation, but in 2015 became a part of Ukraine’s Armed Forces and is now officially (officially, the 24th Separate Assault Battalion.  

From the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, any Ukrainian veteran, whether from Aidar or from other military units, was in danger on territory that fell under Russian occupation.  On 25 September 2023, Russia’s notorious Southern District Military Court, which was involved in illegal ‘trials’ against Ukrainian prisoners of war on charges of involvement in Aidar, also passed a ‘ruling’, claiming the Aidar Battalion to be ‘terrorist’.  The level of repression since then has increased enormously, with Ibragim Kudzhanov one of an ever-increasing number of victims.

MIHR reports that Ibragim Kudzhanov had known of the danger he was in, and also feared for his sons, as the Russians were abducting men of conscription age.  Having not managed to leave the area which had fallen under Russian occupation, Ibragim and his sons tried not to leave the building.  Unfortunately, Ibragim has serious health issues and regular inpatient hospital treatment.

Since the Russians had abducted him from the hospital, they knew that he was unwell, yet still tortured him, using electric currents (through wires attached to the most delicate parts of the body).

Russia has even added Ibragim Kudzhanov to its so-called ‘Register of terrorists and extremists [officially Register of organizations and physical entities with respect to whom there is information about involvement in extremist activities or terrorism].  This register contains a huge number of Crimean Tatar and other Ukrainian political prisoners. 

Due to his illness, the Russians temporarily released Ibragim Kudzhanov under a signed undertaking not to leave the village after several months of imprisonment (and, doubtless, torture). He was later sentenced to five and a half years’ imprisonment and is in a prison colony.

There is no information as to when Artem Kudzhanov’s ‘trial’ is to take place, and the fact that it is to take place before the illegal ‘LPR high court’ means that the only information will be from the Russian prosecutor and propaganda media.

The number of ‘spying trials’ has increased dramatically since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with virtually identical charges repeated in every case.  The claim here is that, from July to August 2022, 19-year-old Artem “voluntarily gathered information about the places where Russian military were deployed”  in occupied Luhansk oblast, and passed these to Ukraine’s Security Service.  Similar allegations were made against Serhiy Tsyhipa; Iryna Horobtsova and numerous other Ukrainian civilians who had been held incommunicado, without any legal status or access to a lawyer, for two years or more.  The emergence of such ‘spying’ charges against Artem two and a half years after his abduction leaves no scope for doubt about the fabricated nature of the indictment, nor, unfortunately, for optimism about the coming verdict.