More details have finally emerged about Hennadiy Kapralov and his wife Olha Kapralova almost three years after the couple were abducted from occupied Melitopol. Until now, all that was known was that this evidently older couple were in Russian captivity and, seemingly, also involved in surreal charges regarding chemical weapons supposedly used by the USA and other NATO countries and the 10-year sentence passed on 23 September 2025 against Diliaver Kurshutov. There remain gaps and huge discrepancies, not least because of the varying propaganda purposes for which the Russian invaders used them. There seems every reason to believe the harrowing account which Hennadiy Kapralov gave to the Southern District Military Court in Rostov of the torture to which he and his wife were subjected, and to assume that Diliaver Kurshutov suffered similar treatment. Hennadiy Kapralov also makes it clear that his captors repeatedly threatened reprisals against his family if he didn’t ‘cooperate’ and it is quite possible that other assertions made in his address to the court on 28 May 2026, reported by Mediazona, may include those that he felt forced to say.
The Crimean Tatar Resource Centre first reported on 4 March 2024 that Diliaver Kurshutov had been ‘arrested’ and was accused of supposedly planning a ‘terrorist attack’ on Yevhen Balytsky, the Russian-installed ‘head’ of occupied Zaporizhzhia oblast. It was claimed that his so-called ‘handlers’ in Kyiv had offered to pay him two thousand euros for poisoning Russian military and ten thousand euros for a successful attempt on Balytsky’s life. Later reports assert that Hennadiy and Olha were also offered money. Such claims of a mercenary motive are a standard element in such prosecutions, with Russia clearly torn between the wish to terrorize the population into submission through ‘arrests’ and show trials and the fear of suggesting that Ukrainians on occupied territory are acting out of patriotism in defence of Ukraine.
Hennadiy and Olha Kapralovy were, according to the reports then and in 2025, supposed to have been seized at the same time, with a search of their home alleged to have found substances which the Russians claimed could be used to make “chemical weapons of mass destruction”. Ukraine was accused of planning ‘acts of terrorism’ with the use of chemical weapons containing an equivalent to the military ‘Agent BZ’. The claims were grandiose and backed in part by a videoed ‘confession’ from Kurshutov which he almost certainly made while held incommunicado and probably without any procedural status or lawyer. It was, therefore, noteworthy that the ‘guilty’ verdict against Kurshutov on 23 September 2025 and ten-year sentence left out a lot of the claims, making no mention, for example, of a planned attack on Balytsky. (see: Telling omissions in Russia's show trial claiming Ukraine’s use of ‘chemical weapons of mass destruction’ )
In his address to the court, Hennadiy Kapralov states clearly that he and Olha were stopped on the street on 21 August 2023 by men who demanded to see their papers and who then took them away, putting bags over their heads after making particularly lawless threats about Olha.
They were held, seemingly in the basement of a former hospital, without any formal status or court ruling, for 95 days with Hennadiy speaking of beatings, torture and threats against their family. It is likely that the methods were the same as those against Diliaver Kurshutov, however the latter is a young man. Hennadiy Kapralov (b. 26 September 1964) is 61 and has heart issues which came to the fore when his captors taped him to a chair and set about beating him in the chest. As well as beatings, they also knocked out his front teeth and subjected him to electric current torture (where wires are attached to particularly delicate parts of the body). There was, in addition, one occasion where his captors, probably deliberately, made him think he was about to be shot. Olha Kapralova (b. 5 January 1973) is 53.
They also brought in his wife and beat her while he was bound to a chair. The first time he screamed at them, calling them monsters and struggling to get free so hard that he fell to the ground, breaking the chair. He could hear Olha screaming, “Don’t beat me!” This happened several days in a row, he said. He describes being in such a state that he tried to kill himself but was stopped by one of the Dagestanis used to guard this secret, and totally illegal, prison. The FSB were in balaclavas and clearly did not want to be identified and avoided addressing each other by name while prisoners were around. One of them advised him to ‘confess’ saying that he would, otherwise, be killed. This was no empty threat. The couple were held incommunicado, without any official charges or formal status. Officially, they ‘did not exist’, with the FSB doubtless denying any knowledge of them.
Kapralov also spoke of other victims, mercilessly tortured, including a truck driver whose vehicle had been stopped at a checkpoint because of a sticker stating that Crimea is Ukraine.
Kapralov does effectively acknowledge part in resistance activities. He was speaking long after Kurshutov had received a huge sentence. What he said earlier is not clear, but he explains that he and Kurshutov, who shared similar professions and lived close to each other, were on good terms and trusted each other. It was, according to his account, Kurshutov who originally suggested that he go with him to pick something up from a much overgrown cemetery. He says they went twice and that the second time, he suggested that he hold on to the box they found.
If this part is true, it seems likely that both men believed that the boxes contained something that could, for example, explode, but were doing no more than holding on to them. Any such acts of resistance are against an invading and occupying power and have nothing to do with ‘terrorism’.
Later in his address, Kapralov said that he told his captors about the box as he feared that if his daughter tried to replace the fence where he had, supposedly, left the box, then she and his grandson would be in danger, He did not know what was in the box, nor did he, or any witnesses, see what his captors allegedly found when they pulled it out.
It was after this that they staged a search of their home and also forced them to take part in a film, with this the footage clearly shown in the same video where Kurshutov’s ‘confession’ was shown.
They were both later given several sheets of their alleged ‘testimony’ to sign, with Kapralov unable to read this or other documents thrust before him, as he was only given his glasses by the clearly appointed lawyer, after all had been signed, It was only after he was taken to Moscow and was able to read the documents, that he told the ‘investigator’ that there were major discrepancies in the date of the arrest, etc. and a lot of events that had never happened. With immense cynicism, this ‘investigator’ told him to tell the court how it really was. While great credit to Hennadiy Kapralov that he told the court about the torture, etc., there has yet to be a trial against Ukrainians at the Southern District Military Court where even the strongest evidence of falsification, or torture, etc. have made any difference.
Hennadiy Kapralov told the court that he denies the charges and insists that he did not do any harm to anyone. He made it clear that he, and others, had not supported Russia’s invasion. He had understood that Kurshutov was for Ukraine and felt the same way. As a citizen of Ukraine, he wanted to help, he said.
Mediazona explains that the ‘confession’ which Kapralov signed but could not read, contained entirely false claims that he had opened the box in front of both his wife and Kurshutov and that his ‘handler’ had instructed them on WhatsApp. The box was claimed to have contained plastic explosives, as well as ampoules labelled ‘biosporin’, and other substances which the ‘investigators’ claim were sent to a laboratory and found to include military-grade Agent BZ.
These were the substances which were claimed, during Kurshutov’s ‘trial’, could be used to create “chemical weapons of mass destruction”.
Like Kurshutov, both Hennadiy and Olha Kapralovy are facing charges under multiple articles of Russia’s criminal code, including ‘a terrorist act’ (Article 205 § 2); ‘involvement in a terrorist organization’ (Article 205.4 § 2); ‘training in terrorist activities (Article 205.3) and explosives charges.
Hennadiy Kapralov’s testimony on 28 May is available in Russian and in English
