An illegal Russian occupation ‘court’ has sentenced Valeriy Vakulenko (b. 29.10.1994), a father of three from Syvaske in occupied Kherson oblast, to 18 years’ maximum-security imprisonment on charges of breathtakingly cynical lawlessness. The aggressor state which, in late February 2022, launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine charged a Ukrainian citizen with ‘sabotage’ for allegedly setting alight a Russian tank which had illegally invaded Ukrainian territory.
According to the Memorial Support for Political Prisoners Project, in letters to volunteers, Vakulenko wrote that “officially he was detained on 26 June 2025”. If his letters were being sent, then Vakulenko would understand that they needed to pass by the prison censor, with the word ‘officially’ possibly the only indication he could give that this was not the real date on which he was seized. This is of particular relevance given that the charge against him is in connection with an act of resistance over four years ago, in March 2022.
Russia’s FSB claimed that in the Novotroitske raion of Kherson oblast in March 2022, Vakulenko had “set fire to” a T-7261 tank which had supposedly caused ammunition to detonate and had destroyed the vehicle. Even by Russian standards, in March 2022 there were no grounds at all for applying Russian legislation on Ukrainian territory, whether or not the latter had been seized by an invading army. Yet the invaders laid charges against Vakulenko under Russian legislation, accusing him of ‘sabotage causing considerable material damage’ under Article 281 § 2b of Russia’s criminal code; of ‘illegal turnover of explosive devices by a group of people (Article 222.1 § 3a) and of “theft of explosive devices by a group of people’ (Article 226 § 3a).
It is probably telling that Vakulenko was held in a SIZO [remand prison] in Rostov (Russia) yet taken back to occupied Kherson oblast for a supposed ‘trial’ before the illegal occupation ‘Kherson regional court’. The charges are not those normally used to justify holding an entire ‘trial’ behind closed doors but holding it before an occupation ‘court’ ensures an equivalent level of secrecy. We essentially know only what the Russians say with respect to the indictment and ‘trial’. The indictment is supposed to have been passed to this illegal ‘court’ on 6 February 2026, with the sentence passed by ‘judge’ Natalia Aleksandrovna Tremasova on 10 April 2026. A pretext cited for one of several hearings being deferred was the non-appearance of alleged “witnesses’. The current regime in Russia has long cultivated Soviet-style denunciations at home and is now seeking to inculcate them on occupied territory. There may, of course, be a more primitive explanation, namely that the FSB found somebody or, more likely, used threats, torture or other duress to force a person or persons to claim that they ‘witnessed’ something.
It seems clear that Vakulenko rejected part or all of the charges, and an appeal has been lodged.
