Relatives of Imprisoned employees of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant need your help to ensure that they are heard when they meet with Rafael Mariano Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) next week. Russia’s invasion and occupation of the largest nuclear power plant in Europe is undoubtedly jeopardizing nuclear security in Europe, with control and monitoring of the plant certainly critical. So too is justice, however, and the release of the very many employees of the plant whom the Russians abducted, often tortured and have imprisoned on absurd charges. Rafael Grossi has, up till, focused only on safety issues, and has not addressed the need for the release of imprisoned employees. An appeal for him to do so has been initiated by the Association of Relatives of Political Prisoners of the Kremlin; Legal Action Worldwide and the Ukrainian human rights organization Truth Hounds which recently published a vital report on Russia’s occupation of the plant, its nuclear safety breaches and human rights violations. The appeal has already been endorsed by close on 50 thousand people – please add your name here!
On 4 March 2022, Russian invading forces seized control of both Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant [ZNPP] and the neighbouring city of Enerhodar, where thousands came out in protest but were powerless before Russian tanks.
The first reports of abductions, torture and at least one killing, began soon afterwards. Andriy Honcharuk was a diver for the plant whose work would have involved inspecting the water-cooling system, safety maintenance, etc. On 29 June 2022, he was beaten and tortured by the invaders, reportedly for having refused to take any part in their attempt to get the water emptied from the cooling system. He was beaten into a coma and died of his injuries on 3 July 2022.
Truth Hounds reports that they have documented Russia’s unlawful detention of at least 226 Enerhodar residents and ZNPP employees. Most were held “in severely overcrowded facilities where detainees were subjected to physical and psychological torture to extract information, force confessions, punish dissent, intimidate, and coerce collaboration”. The Russians standardly used multiple forms of torture, including electric currents attached to sensitive parts of the body; sexual violence; mock executions and threats to family members. 78 ZNPP employees were targeted, with many having been sentenced to massive terms of imprisonment. The charges are all totally grotesque. Svitlana Dovhopola, for example, was charged with ‘treason’ and sentenced to 14 years, because of donations she made to the unit of Ukraine’s Armed Forces in which her son was serving. 41-year-old Vadym Trachuk was sentenced to 25 years’ maximum-security imprisonment on surreal ‘terrorism’ and ‘international terrorism’ charges.
The following is, unfortunately, unlikely to be an exhaustive list of illegally imprisoned ZNPP employees
Ruslan Lavryk is 55 and was an engineer at the plant. He was abducted in June 2024 and sentenced to 16 years’ maximum-security imprisonment and now urgently needs hospitalization, very likely because of the torture to which he was subjected. The charge of ‘treason’, under Article 275 of Russia’s criminal code, was because of a donation in support of Ukraine’s Armed Forces. Here and in all other cases, Russia uses the Russian citizenship which it has forced Ukrainians to take as excuse for then charging them with treason for remaining true to their country.
Lilia Kachariova (b. 22.06.1966) and Svitlana Dovhopola (b. 16.02.1962)
Both women were seized and charged with ‘treason’ over donations to Ukraine’s Armed Forces. They were sentenced to 14 years’ medium-security imprisonment.
Huge sentences and videoed ‘repentance’ in Russia’s mounting terror in occupied Zaporizhzhia oblast
Vadym Trachuk
Oleh Morochkovsky
Morochkovsky, who is in his thirties, was a guard at ZNPP when abducted by the Russians in August 2022. His captors, it is now known, subjected him to savage beatings and electric current torture to try to force him to place the blame for Russia’s shelling of the nuclear power station on Ukraine. It was learned in early April 2024 that the illegal occupation ‘Zaporizhzhia regional court’ had, at the end of March that year, sentenced Oleh Morochkovsky and Dmytro Yevsieliev from Enerhodar to 11 years on ‘spying’ charges, under Article 276 of Russia’s criminal code.
Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant guard savagely tortured to blame Ukraine for Russia’s war crimes
Serhiy Potynh (b. 18.04.1992)
The 18-year maximum-security sentence was reported in March 2025, almost two years after Ukrainian engineer was seized in June 2023 and, reportedly, subjected to savage torture.
Nalalia Shulha
Tetiana Kliuchko
Russia sentences Ukrainian to 12 years on fake Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant ‘terrorism’ charges
Serhiy Spartesny
Serhiy Korzh
Serhiy Korzh was abducted together with his twin brother Oleksandr Korzh, who worked for the State Centre on Nuclear and Radiation Safety. Serhiy last saw his brother in SIZO No. 2, an FSB-controlled remand prison in occupied Simferopol, back in December 2022. According to the Centre for Journalist Investigations, nothing has been heard of him since.
Oleksiy Brazhnyk
Another ZNPP engineer, Brazhnyk was last seen in February 2023, when the Russians produced a propaganda video, claiming to have ‘deported’ him (details here Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant engineer held and tortured by Russian invaders for over a year)
Andriy Nudha was seized by the Russians on 15 April 2023, and sentenced to 12 years later on ‘terrorism’ charges, seemingly linked with Russia’s persecution of Vadym Trachuk.
Oleksandr Matiukhin, another ZNPP employee, was abducted on 14 March 2023 and sentenced, in September 2024 to 13 years on supposed ‘spying’ charges.
