Russia’s occupation ‘Zaporizhzhia regional court’ has sentenced 56-year-old Volodymyr Perzhynsky to over 12 years’ maximum-security imprisonment just days after the same illegitimate body passed an ever harsher, 15-year sentence against Volodymyr’s 25-year-old son, Mark Perzhynsky. Everything about this family persecution, from the initial abduction of father and son to Volodymyr Perzhynsky’s videoed ‘confession’ and two sentences passed without any evidence of real trials, is ominously reminiscent of countless other cases where Russia’s FSB have claimed to have ‘thwarted’ Ukrainian saboteurs.
As reported, Volodymyr Perzhynsky, who is from Bratske, in Melitopol raion, is a prominent farmer, while his son was well-known as a professional weightlifter. Although most of the aspects of their ‘case’ have been seen before, the eye-watering amounts that both father and son were ordered to pay in supposed ‘compensation’, as well as in fines, only increase the suspicion that they were targeted in retaliation for Volodymyr Perzhynsky’s refusal to collaborate with the Russian occupiers. According to the Ukrainian publication RIA-South, all local farmers came under huge pressure from the invaders, were forced to hand over their grain for a pittance, were threatened at gunpoint and often subjected to abductions and fabrication of criminal charges.
The report of Volodymyr Perzhynsky’s sentence on 5 February 2026 was accompanied by an FSB video alleging to show the men’s ‘arrests’, as well as by Perzhynsky’s supposed ‘confession’. As always this was given to the camera or to an unseen interrogator, and almost certainly under duress. We know from essentially all cases where a person has later been released, or at least given access to an independent lawyer, that such ‘confessions’ are typically extracted through torture or threats, including threats to subject a person’s family to torture.
The basic indictment against Volodymyr Perzhynsky (b. 1969) was essentially that against his son. Both men were said to be supporters of a pro-Ukrainian position and to have “decided to act against the Russian armed forces’ and what Russia insists on calling its ‘special military operation’, i.e. its war of aggression against Ukraine.
It was claimed that Perzhynsky Senior, together with his son, had, from March 2022 through October 2023, obtained, transported and stored weapons, explosives and ammunition “for use in carrying out acts of sabotage against the RF armed forces”. From August through October 2023, he had purportedly, “as part of an organized group on instructions from a member of Ukraine’s Security Service, carried out acts of sabotage against Russian military sites.”
The FSB claimed to have found vast amounts of various types of weapons, etc., when they carried out searches of Volodymyr Perzynsky’s home and farms. That assertion is backed solely by video footage which in no way proves any involvement by Volodymyr Perzynsky or his son.
The charges appear to have been identical to those against Mark Perzhynsky, except that only the latter was charged with of undergoing training in order to carry out acts of sabotage (Article 281.2 of Russia’s criminal code).
Both men were accused of ‘involvement in a sabotage organization, under Article 281.3 § 2; sabotage carried out by an organized group (Article 281 § 2a, b and c), and weapons and explosives charges under Articles 222, 222.1 and 222.2.
Judging by the dates, it seems likely that both men were abducted around November 2023, with nothing to indicate how long they were held incommunicado, without any formal status, before being charged. It is particularly during such periods where a person is denied any contact with independent lawyers or family, that detainees are subjected to illegal forms of duress, including torture, in order to fabricate ‘evidence’.
56-year-old Volodymyr Perzhynsky was sentenced to 12 years and 5 months of maximum-security imprisonment, with the first four years in a prison, the harshest of Russian penal institutions.
Mark Perzhynsky (25) received a 15-year maximum-security sentence, also with the first four years in a prison.
The illegal occupation ‘Zaporizhzhia regional court’ also imposed one million roubles fines against both father and son and ordered confiscation of money to cover supposed ‘damages’ claimed to reach 17.6 million rouble ‘damages’.
