Russia’s Southern District Military Court in Rostov has sentenced Serhiy Yatskov to 20 years’ maximum-security imprisonment on grotesquely illegal charges. The Ukrainian prisoner of war, captured while defending his country, was accused of ‘terrorism’ on the basis of a flawed and politically motivated Russian supreme court ruling from 2022. That declared the Noman Çelebicihan Crimean Tatar Volunteer Battalion, a ‘terrorist organization’. Russia’s supreme court began handing down politically commissioned rulings long before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and this is by no means the first ruling since 2022, clearly aimed at providing a pretext for staging show trials, including of Ukrainian prisoners of war.
There are, however, particular difficulties in this case, with neither Russia’s prosecutor general, who asked for the ban, nor the supreme court which obliged, seemingly clear what exactly was being called ‘terrorist’.
In announcing the ban on 1 June 2022, Russia’s prosecutor general stated that “the battalion was formed in 2015 for a food, energy, water and other blockade of Crimea.” It went on to claim, inaccurately, that Crimean Tatar leaders Mustafa Dzhemilev and Refat Chubarov had taken part in its formation and that it was an independent armed formation, with various types of weapons used. The description ended with typical RussiaSpeak, namely the claim that the Battalion’s aim was “the violation of Russia’s territorial integrity and that one of its main tasks was “the armed seizure of the Republic of Crimea”.
It was Russia that carried out an armed invasion and seized control of Crimea in 2014, with this violating Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
Mustafa Dzhemilev and Refat Chubarov had nothing to do with the formation of the Noman Çelebicihan Battalion, but did initiate a vital, and belated, Civic Blockade of Crimea, which began on 20 September 2015, initially with specific human rights demands. They were joined in this by Crimean Tatar activist and businessman Lenur Islyamov. It was he who, on 1 January 2016, created the Noman Çelebicihan Battalion with the first members people who had taken part in the civic blockade. The ultimate aim of the Battalion was, undoubtedly, the liberation of occupied Crimea, but this is only regarded as a crime by the aggressor state. The Battalion, which is no longer functioning, was a civic organization, which was not armed, and was not illegal in Ukraine.
Russia began abducting Crimean Tatars and sentencing them to long terms of imprisonment over alleged involvement in the Battalion back in 2018, however the number of such cases rose dramatically after 2022. Of the 50 cases which the Crimean Tatar Resource Centre had recorded, as of October 2024, 19 were against Crimean Tatars seized in occupied Crimea, while the other 31 were of Crimean Tatars or other Ukrainians from occupied parts of Kherson oblast. While feared that Russia would use the supreme court ruling from 1 June 2022 to justify bringing in ‘terrorism’ charges and significantly longer sentences. In the case of civilians, this has not happened, with Russia continuing to illegally apply another article of its criminal code.
Involvement in the above-described Noman Çelebicihan Battalion is treated as “participation in the activities of an unlawful armed formation acting on the territory of a foreign country for purposes which are against the interests of the Russian Federation” under Article 208 § 2 of Russia’s criminal code.
Serhiy Yatskov (b. 26 December 1980) is, undoubtedly, a prisoner of war, who appears to have been taken prisoner in January 2025. The charges and the monstrous 20-year sentence are identical to those against another Ukrainian POW, Ihor Varchuk. He was seized while serving in the 48th Separate Assault Battalion, named after Noman Çelebicihan. The Battalion is historically linked with the Noman Çelebicihan Crimean Tatar Volunteer Battalion, formed at the beginning of 2016, but is a unit of Ukraine’s Armed Forces (the 123rd Territorial Defence Brigade) which arose in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022. Even if, officially, the battalion is made up of territorial reserves, in the face of Russia’s full-scale invasion, this is hardly a relevant distinction.
Instead of treating Varchuk as a prisoner of war, who must not be prosecuted for military service, Russia claimed that his military training constituted ‘training in terrorist activities’ (under Article 205.3 of Russia’s criminal code). His active service was then labelled ‘participation in the activities of an organization declared terrorist in accordance with RF legislation’ (Article 205.5 § 2). On 22 May 2025, the same Southern District Military Court found Ihor Varchuk ‘guilty’ and sentenced him to twenty years’ maximum-security [‘harsh-regime’]] imprisonment, with the first three years in a prison, the worst of Russia’s penal institutions.
Serhiy Yatskov was also accused of involvement in an organization recognized by the RF as ‘terrorist’ and of ‘training in terrorist activities’. He was added in March 2025 to Russia’s notorious ‘register of extremists and terrorists’, and sentenced on 3 September 2025 to 20 years, also with the first three years in a prison.
Russia is using equally flawed rulings about other military units of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, such as the Azov Regiment and the Aidar Battalion, and has also stated fake ‘trials’ and passed massive sentences against Ukrainian soldiers who were taken prisoner in Russia’s Kursk oblast
