Russia’s Southern District Military Court has passed horrific sentences, up to life imprisonment, against five Ukrainians accused of killing a Ukrainian traitor Ivan Sushko, whom the Russians had installed as ‘head’ of occupied Mykhailivka (Zaporizhzhia oblast). He was killed when a bomb under his car exploded on 24 August 2022. The Russian aggressor state claimed that this constituted ‘an act of international terrorism’ under Article 361 § 3 of Russia’s criminal code and also accused of the five Ukrainian citizens of ‘illegal trafficking of explosive substances as part of an organized group’, under Article 221 § 4). All five men insisted that they had been abducted and tortured into provided ‘confessions’. Given that the Russians seized Volodymyr Teteriev on the first anniversary of Sushko’s death, and claimed to have arrested him even later, in November 2023, it seems clear that their only ‘evidence’ lay in ‘testimony’ provided (and later retracted) by men held incommunicado and without lawyers.
Sentences were announced on 9 June 2026 by;judge’ Igor Vladimirovich Kostin who has long played an active role in Russia’s persecution of Crimean Tatar and other Ukrainian political prisoners. Volodymyr Teteriev (b. 3.09.1975) was sentenced to life on the ‘act of international terrorism’ charge, and 9 years on the explosives charge. The first six years of the sentence are to be in a prison, the harshest of Russia’s penal institutions, with the remainder of his life, if Russia is allowed its way, in a special-regime prison colony. Kostin also imposed a 700 thousand rouble fine.
Oleksiy Kyrychenko (b. 16.09.1990); Oleksandr Liakhovchenko (b. 29.12.2001); and Dmytro Novikov (b. 14.09.1989) were all sentenced to 18 years, while the youngest, Danylo Smola (b. 7.12.2003) received a 17-year sentence. In all cases, the sentences included the first four
In all these cases, the first four years are to be in a prison, the remainder of the sentences in a maximum-security prison colony. A fine of 600 thousand roubles was also imposed against each of the men.
The verdict is not final and will almost certainly be appealed. It is, unfortunately, possible that the prosecutor will also challenge the sentences, having demanded life in all five cases. This is despite the fact that, aside from extremely vague claims of involvement in some kind of ‘organized gang’ created by officers from Ukraine’s Security Service from 24 February 2022 (the day of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine) to 23/24 August 2022, the impugned ‘crimes’ in four of the cases seemed very minor. Each was supposed to have in some way followed and recorded Sushko’s movements. Teteriev was claimed to have taken a more active role.
The ‘guilty verdicts’ and long sentences were essentially guaranteed, and it is hardly surprising that Dmytro Novikov refused to leave his cell on Tuesday and be present at the predetermined finale.
Mediazona reports that all five men had stated clearly that they had been abducted and subjected to torture in order to extract false ‘confessions’. This was, typically, ignored by Russia’s Investigative Committee which, on 9 March 2026, refused to initiate an investigation. It seems that Alexander Bastrykin, head of the Investigative Committee and close crony of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, had stated after Sushko’s death that he was taking the case “under his control”. Under Bastrykin’s leadership, the Investigative Committee has been directly involved in extracting ‘confessions’ through torture since 2014, with Bastrykin himself having publicised some of the insane ‘confessions’ that men held incommunicado for months (in the case of Mykola Karpiuk – a year and a half) signed. There is no reason to believe that this case was any different.
During the court debate, Volodymyr Teteriev described both his abduction by the Russians and the torture to which he was subjected.
He stated that he had been seized on 23 August 2023. He had fallen asleep after taking medication for heart issues and was woken by blows to the head by men in balaclavas who had burst into his home. His captors not only tortured him to get the basic ‘confession’, but had also threatened to “torture to death” his elderly mother if he didn’t make up ‘testimony’ for them. It is typical that Russia is only admitting to have taken him prisoner, at the end of November 2023, with it likely that prior to this, he had no status at all, making it possible to hold him incommunicado and torture him with impunity. At one point, he pleaded for mercy, mentioning his heart condition. His captors told him “Don’t worry, we know how to resuscitate”.
During the first ‘interrogation’, one of his torturers said: “Do you know how we are different from the Gestapo? Only in the name.”
When he continued to be unable to “remember”, as they put it, he had wires attached to his genitals, to his earlobes, for particularly excruciating electric current torture. Throughout the days of torture, he often lost consciousness and needed to be revived.
His torturers made it quite clear that they would not check evidence proving that he had had nothing to do with the killing of Sushko and that the only question mark was over how much health Teteriev would have left before he signed their ‘confession’. They also threatened to shoot him, spelling out that nobody would even know that he had been their prisoner. Then one of the torturers said: “I’m sick of all this. We need to bring his mother in and torture her to death until he signs everything.”
It was after that threat that Teteriev asked to know what they wanted of him, and, was told his confession to Sushko’s killing. He said to bring him paper and he’s sign everything, but just leave his elderly mother alone.
After almost three weeks of such torture, he was taken to some office where he was told that he would be questioned by ‘an investigator’ and that he must not change his ‘testimony’. He endeavoured to tell this individual that he rejected the charges and had signed the confession under torture. “He said, OK, and went out somewhere.” Five minutes later, men turned up and began savagely beating him. They told him to not “complicate his life”, to not destroy his health and to think about his mother.
The torture and other illegal forms of coercion continued well into November 2023. There are no grounds for believing that the methods of obtaining ‘testimony’ from the other men was any different.
