Russia’s notorious Southern District Military Court churned out three more illegal sentences against Ukrainians, at least two of whom are prisoners of war, on 20 and 21 January 2026. One of these was the third such travesty against Ukrainian defender Serhiy Samokhval. In all cases, a politically motivated Russian supreme court ruling from 2 August 2022, declaring the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ Azov Regiment a ‘terrorist organization’ was used as pretext for accusing men of ‘terrorism’ for having defended their country against invaders.
Oleksiy Kozachok
The first sentence, on 20 January 2026, was against Oleksiy Kozachok, a 65-year-old former deputy of the Starobilsk City Council in Luhansk oblast. Although the so-called ‘Luhansk people’s republic prosecutor ’announced on 15 September 2025 that “the latest member of the Azov terrorist organization” Oleksiy Kozachok was to go on trial, there seem compelling grounds for doubting any of this.
Starobilsk has been under Russian occupation since early in 2022, making it difficult to take seriously the claim that Kozachok “voluntarily joined” Azov while in Starobilsk in May 2024, and then took part in military action against the Russian army (invading his country) in occupied parts of both Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts. Scepticism is further exacerbated by the second claim, namely that explosive devices had been found at Kozachok’s home.
Kozachok was charged under Article 205.4 § 2 of Russia’s criminal code (involvement in a so-called ‘terrorist organization’) and Article 222.1 § 1 (possession of explosives). Although there are no grounds for believing that Kozachok’s right to a fair trial was respected, there were a few hearings, with this likely meaning that he rejected one or both of the charges. The sentence, of eight years in a medium-security prison colony and 30 thousand rouble fine, is lower that that normally applied in such cases It was passed on 20 January 2026 by ‘judge’ Oleg Aleksandrovich Cherepov from the Southern District Military Court who has already been involved in passing other politically motivated sentences against Ukrainian citizens from occupied parts of Ukraine.
Vladyslav Zarzhytsky
According to the Russian state-controlled TASS, Vladyslav Zarzytsky is 27 and joined the Azov Regiment in 2018. With standard distortion, the TASS report claims that “he took part in battles on the territory of the Donetsk people’s republic on the side of the Kyiv regime”. Since he has been a prisoner of war since May 2022, it is, in fact, likely that he was among the Ukrainian forces who defended Mariupol from the Russian invaders to the end and was then taken into captivity.
Zarzytsky was, therefore, already in captivity when Russia’s supreme court passed the ruling on 2 August 2022, claiming that a regiment of Ukraine’s Armed Forces was somehow a ‘terrorist organization’. He was, nonetheless, charged with ‘involvement in a terrorist organization’, under Article 205.4 § 2 of Russia’s criminal code and with ‘training in terrorist activities’ (Article 205.3).
All Ukrainian and international investigators have concluded that Russia is systematically torturing most Ukrainian prisoners of war, with members of the Azov Regiment receiving by far the most savage treatment. The fact that there was essentially no ‘trial’ in this case, only the hearing at which the ‘court retired to pass sentence’, is more likely to be because of the treatment the young prisoner of war was receiving than because of any chosen stand.
The sentence – eighteen years in a maximum-security prison colony was passed on 21 January 2025 by ‘judge’ Igor Petrovich Degtyarev. The latter has been involved in passing huge sentences against Crimean Tatar and other Ukrainian political prisoners.
Serhiy Samokhval
32-year-old Serhiy Samokhval (b. 28.08.1993 in Luhansk oblast) was charged under the same two articles as Zarzytsky, namely ‘involvement in a terrorist organization’, under Article 205.4 § 2 of Russia’s criminal code and ‘training in terrorist activities’ (Article 205.3).
This was, however, the third such judicial stunt to which the Ukrainian POW was subjected. The first two were staged by the occupation ‘Donetsk people’s republic high court’, with the prisoner of war first sentenced to 22 years and two months’ imprisonment, and then to 23 years. With those sentences supposedly taken into account, he was sentenced on 21 January 2026 by ‘judge’ Timur Khabasovich Mashukov to 28 years’ maximum-security imprisonment. Mashukov can have been in no doubt about the grotesque nature of the charges and the illegality of prosecuting any Ukrainian military serviceman for defending his country, not to mention doing it three times.
See also:
Ukrainian POW subjected to two fake trials and massive sentences in revenge for defending Mariupol
Russia sentences Ukrainian POW Ihor Kim twice to 24 and 27 years for defending Mariupol in 2022
