Volodymyr Ananiev’s health has sharply deteriorated in Russian captivity, with the 75-year-old Crimean political prisoner experiencing problems with his spine, muscles and kidneys. He also has serious eyesight issues, with a glaucoma developing in one eye. The conditions in a Russian SIZO [remand prison] are a grave strain on men half Ananiev’s age and Russia is guilty of medical torture through its failure to provide the elderly Ukrainian with proper health care. It is quite possible that Ananiev’s refusal to admit to the preposterous charges against him, together with his known pro-Ukrainian position, are making Russia escalate its persecution. His wife, Hanna Sviatnenko told the Crimean Tatar Resource Centre that she has been prevented from having any contact at all with her husband.
Ananiev already had serious health issues when seized by the FSB in occupied Crimea on 2 February 2024. It was visible even in the Russian FSB’s propaganda video that the Ukrainian, then 74, needed a walking stick due to problems with his knee joint. His spinal and eye problems also emerged before he ended up in Russian captivity, as did the high blood pressure, from which he continues to suffer.
Neither his evident disability, nor the other health issues, stopped Russia’s FSB from including Ananiev in a supposed ‘plot to kill the Russian-installed leader of occupied Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov. The health problems may, however, have deterred the FSB from using the direct methods of physical torture to which the other two Ukrainians - Volodymyr Bodnar and Oksana Shevchenko – were almost certainly subjected. There are no grounds for suspecting the FSB of any human concern for the life and health of the then 74-year-old. It is, nonetheless, possible that they did not want him to die before being convicted, since this messes up their ‘statistics’. He has consistently denied the charges brought against him, with this dragging out the proceedings at the Southern District Military Court in Rostov. As in all ‘trials’ of Crimean Tatar and other Ukrainian political prisoners at this court, the outcome is largely predetermined, though the sentence could be even worse out of revenge for Ananiev’s refusal to provide a false ‘confession’. In October, ‘judge’ Denis Aleksandrovich Galkin extended Ananiev’’s detention until February 2026, two years after his effective abduction. The next hearing is scheduled for 25 November 2025.
Although Ananiev and his wife had been living in Kyiv for some time, Ananiev is from Crimea, and was staying with a friend, sorting out some matters. He was well-known in Crimea for his civic activism, particularly in helping people protect their right to their land. Refat Chubarov, Head of the Mejlis, or representative assembly of the Crimean Tatar people, has spoken of Ananiev as a person for whom justice is paramount. He was concerned to ensure just and honest privatization of land in Crimea, including for Crimean Tatars. He searched for solutions for Crimean Tatars who returned to their homeland after decades of forced exile (following the 1944 Deportation) and who had been left without land of their own.
Andriy Shchekun, a civic activist forced into exile after being abducted and tortured in the first weeks after Russia’s invasion, has known Ananiev since 1999 and recalls the crucial role Ananiev played in helping people, including Shchekun’s own father-in-law, to defend their right to their land. He says that, at that time, Volodymyr “was a breath of freedom for people who had worked hard on the land. They were grateful for such support and felt that they were not alone.”. Ananiev is reported to have also provided support for believers of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and to have published publicist works.
Such a clear civic position would have made him an obvious target for persecution in Russian-occupied Crimea.
Although Russia began fabricating ‘terrorism’ and ‘Crimean saboteur’ trials soon after its invasion and annexation of Crimea in 2014, a new propaganda line emerged after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Since then, there have been a huge number of cases where Ukrainian citizens are seized and accused of supposedly ‘thwarted’ plots to kill Russian-installed leaders, or other high-ranking officials. As before, however, the charges appear to be backed solely by ‘confessions’ from people who have been held, incommunicado and without access to lawyers.
This was the case here. Russia’s FSB claimed on 5 February 2024 to have thwarted a ‘plot’ to kill ‘Crimean occupation leader’ Sergei Aksyonov. The three Ukrainians arrested were identified as Volodymyr Bodnar (b. 1974); his 45-year-old wife Oksana Shevchenko, and a second man, initially identified only by surname and initials V.V. Ananiev. The FSB video showed all three, with Ananiev described as disabled and walking with a stick. Although the Russian state media claimed that all three had admitted to the charges, only Bodnar was shown ‘confessing’. That ‘confession’ bore all the hallmarks of a rehearsed text which Bodnar repeated, probably under threat of renewed torture. In places he became flustered, as though he couldn’t remember what he was supposed to say, while in others he rattled out his text as though he had learned it off by heart. The story was full of telling little details, such as that the explosive device which Bodnar had purportedly managed to carry across multiple checkpoints, was “of American or German make” (details here)
There is every reason to assume that both Bodnar and Shevchenko gave their ‘testimony’ under torture, and no grounds for believing that the couple, who had been living in Melitopol, even knew Volodymyr Ananiev.
At the time, it was stated that all three Ukrainians were charged under Article 205 § 2 a, (and Article 30 § 1) of Russia’s criminal code – attempt to commit an act of terrorism, as well as Article 222.1 § 3a (unlawful possession, etc. of weapons, explosive devices, etc.). This was presented as one ‘plot’ with three alleged plotters, however three separate ‘trials’ were staged.
The charges in all three cases differ in one rather strange way, namely that each has been accused, under Article 205. § 3b (a terrorist act, but one “which led to a person’s death’). It is unclear why this charge is used in the case of a purportedly thwarted attack. Not only did Aksyonov not die, but there is no evidence that there ever was an attempted attack. The article envisages a sentence of 15 to 20 years’ imprisonment.
The indictment against Oksana Shevchenko were passed to the Southern District Military Court on 6 February 2025. Judging by the number of hearings that did not happen, it seems likely that Shevchenko agreed to plead guilty, perhaps in the hope of getting a lighter sentence. On 14 May 2025, she was sentenced by ‘judge’ Denis Vasilievich Stepanov to 10 years medium-security imprisonment and to a steep 500 thousand rouble fine. It was claimed that she was part of an organized group which was planning an attack on Sergei Aksyonov, Russian-installed ‘Crimean head’.
On 23 June 2025, ‘judge’ Konstantin Igorevich Prostov from the Southern District Military Court sentenced Volodymyr Bodnar to 13 years’ maximum-security imprisonment, with the first three years in a prison, the harshest and most restrictive, of Russian penal institutions Bodnar was found ‘guilty’ of ‘an attempt to commit an act of terrorism’ under Article 205 § 3 b, (and Article 30 § 1) of Russia’s criminal code, as well as of explosives charges under Article 222.1 § 4.
More or less the same changes have been brought against Volodymyr Ananiev, with these ‘trials’ where the outcome is, tragically, not in doubt. The 75-year-old cannot possibly survive such a sentence, even if a longer term of imprisonment is not imposed in revenge for his adamant refusal to be cowered into ‘cooperating’ by providing the demanded ‘confession’ to an almost certainly fictitious plot.
