Seven years after Vladyslav Zaitsev, then just 19, and his mother Olena Zaitseva were taken prisoner in the Russian proxy ‘Donetsk people’s republic’ [‘DPR]], a Russian court has sentenced Vladyslav to 22 years’ maximum-security imprisonment and his mother to 10 years. If the sentence against Olena was, at least, passed in absentia, her son’s torment is continuing. There is quite simply no chance that Vladyslav was not tortured back in 2019 (if not longer), and he has been imprisoned ever since in the appalling conditions of Russian occupation or Russian penal institutions. If Russia is allowed its way, Vladyslav will be 41 when released and that is if we assume that Russia acknowledges when he was taken prisoner by the security service of a fake ‘republic’ which Russia had not yet ‘recognized’, yet undoubtedly controlled. That, in turn, is not at all guaranteed, with both Russia and its proxy ‘republic’ often holding people without admitting to this, with such time typically used to torture with impunity.
On 26 February 2019, Vladislav Zaitsev (b. 2000) was seized by armed men from the ‘DPR ministry of state security’ who accused him of planning to blow up a railway bridge (or, according to recent Russian media reports, of having blown it up). Olena Zaitseva was, at that time, working at a warehouse by the railway station in occupied Yasynuvata. Back in 2021 it was learned from a former hostage, held in the same cell at Izolyatsia with Zaitseva, that she was ‘detained’ when she tried to stop the men from taking Vladyslav away and got into their car herself.
She was told then that she would be freed in 30 days. Instead, she was taken to the notorious Izolyatsia secret prison in occupied Donetsk where both men and women were subjected to horrific torture. Despite concern about her state of health, in particularly because of recurrent attacks of heavy bleeding, it was only in October 2022 that Ukraine secured her release in a prisoner exchange. She has, since then, been campaigning for the release of her son and other civilian hostages.
Russian media now claim that “the ‘DPR security service reported 19-year-old Zaitsev’s arrest after an explosion on the railways”. The chronology was, almost certainly, entirely different, with Zaitsev and his mother effectively disappearing for some months, until the young man was shown on a Russian state-controlled news program. On this, Zaitsev, almost certainly under torture, states that he was working for Ukraine’s Security Service [SBU]. He claims that he had been detained by the police for a small offence and, in exchange for his freedom, agreed to cooperate with the SBU. It is a standard feature of such videoed ‘confessions’ that Ukrainians say that they were either blackmailed, or bribed, into taking part in resistance activities, with the aggressor state clearly loath to admit that Ukrainians would simply be doing so out of patriotism. It should also be remembered that the vast majority of hostages, both those seized by the proxy ‘republics’ and those taken prisoner by the Russian invaders, are accused of ‘spying for Ukraine’, with former hostages released in prisoner exchanges confirming that their ‘confessions’ were extracted under duress.
Vladyslav Zaitsev was, in total violation of international law, tried on the invading country’s territory under Russian legislation. He was charged with ‘involvement in a terrorist organization’ (Article 205.4 § 2 of Russia’s criminal code); ‘training in terrorist activities’ (Article 205.3); various counts of ‘sabotage’ (Article 281 § 2; and explosives and weapons charges (Articles 222.1 § 4 and 223.1 § 3). Olena Zaitseva, who was only held prisoner and ‘tried’ because she tried to rescue her son, was accused of ‘abetting’ the ‘sabotage’ and ‘abetting explosives’ and ‘sabotage’ charges.
This is quite a barrage of charges for a young man who was just 19 when abducted by armed representatives of a self-proclaimed and Russian-controlled ‘republic’. There is, of course, no possibility of finding out if there was any evidence for the charges as the entire ‘trial’ was held at the Southern District Military Court behind closed doors. The 22-year sentence (that demanded by the prosecutor) was passed by Denis Aleksandrovich Galkin. This individual has, in 2025 alone, passed horrific politically motivated sentences against abducted Melitopol Telegram channel administrator Maksym Rupchev; 52-year-old Crimean Serhiy Lykhomanov and is heading in the same direction against 75-year-old Volodymyr Ananiev.
