Almost three years after Oleksandr Osadchy was abducted from his home in occupied Feodosia, an occupation ‘court’ has sentenced the 63-year-old to 19 years’ maximum-security imprisonment, a sentence which men half his age would find difficult to survive. The charge of ‘treason’ differs only marginally from the types of accusations that would have been used during the Soviet Terror in 1937 when they came for and executed Osadchy’s grandfather.
The occupation ‘prosecutor’ and ‘Crimean high court’ reported on 25 June 2026 that a resident of Feodosia, born in 1962, had been sentenced to 19 years’ maximum-security imprisonment for supposed ‘state treason’, under Article 275 of Russia’s criminal code. As always, such ‘trials’ are held behind closed doors, supposedly because they contain ‘state secrets’, with the occupying state using the Russian citizenship which they have forced on residents of occupied territory as excuse for then charging them with ‘treason’. In all such cases, the person is alleged to have passed on information “to a foreign intelligence service” “for use against the security of the Russian Federation”. Osadchy was claimed to have, during 2022 and through to August 2023 photographed oil depots, the movement of locomotives carrying oil products; military sites and ships in the port and posted these in a chat-bot used by Ukraine’s Military Intelligence and Security Service.
The total secrecy enabled the prosecution to avoid such obvious questions as to how a layperson living in heavily militarized Crimea under Russian occupation was supposed to have been able to take photograps or otherwise gather information of importance to Ukraine’s Military Intelligence. In the cases where something has been learned about the charges, it is clear that any photo, however innocuous, or information that is openly available on the Internet, can be used as pretext for persecution. onvictions are guaranteed, with the same ‘judges’ churning out massive sentences on a virtually daily basis. The sentence this time was passed by Sergei Nikolaevich Pogrebnyak who faces warranted treason charges in Ukraine for betraying his oath and taking part in Russia’s persecution of Ukrainian citizens. He has already been involved in numerous other sentences, including those against Serdar Izmailov; Charaz Akimov; Liudmyla Kolesnikova and Valery Shevchuk. The sentence against Oleksandr Osadchy (b. 1 October 1962) was especially savage. The 63-year-old was sentenced to 19 years in a maximum-security prison colony and a further 20 months of restricted liberty. Pogrebnyak also imposed a 400 thousand rouble fine against a man who has been illegally imprisoned since November 2023.
Oleksandr Osadchy b. 1.10.1962 is from a family with Bulgarian roots. He was born in Vilshanka (Kirovohrad Oblast) and studied at Odesa University before moving to Crimea, where he initially worked on a ship-building factory in Feodosia and then became a businessman. He also taught children to swim and developed various social and educational projects.
The Crimean Tatar Resource Centre reported earlier that Osadchy held a pronounced civic position, loved Crimea and Ukraine and was therefore not prepared to leave after the Russian invasion. The occupation sources do not particularly try to conceal the causal link between Osadchy’s pro-Ukrainian views and his persecution. He is described as an opponent of what Moscow claims to be ‘a special military operation’, i.e. its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. According to Olha Kuryshko, Presidential Representative on Crimea, the occupation enforcement bodies claimed that, “having a pro-Ukrainian position, [Osadchy] took photos and videos of an oil tank and then passed this on” [to Ukraine].
The Russian FSB burst into his home on 24 August 2023 and, after carrying out a search, took him away. He had recently visited his brother and his then 90-year-old mother in Kirovohrad Oblast, with this involving travelling from Crimea to Russia, crossing into Georgia, and other countries, before reaching mainland Ukraine. That was the last time Oleksandr’s mother and brother spoke with him.
There was total silence for almost a full year, with Oleksandr’s family knowing nothing about his whereabouts, or even whether he was alive. In an interview to Suspilne, Serhiy Osadchy explained that it was only in June 2024 that they received a call from Crimea. The person ringing said that he was a lawyer and that “Oleksandr asked me to pass on that he’s alive. He’s in SIZO [remand prison].”
It was also around then that the Crimean Tatar Resource Centre learned of a videoed ‘confession’ on a Russian propaganda channel. The person’s face was blurred however Serhiy recognized his brother’s voice. Serhiy said then that his brother was accused of three charges and mentioned ‘state treason’ and ‘abetting terrorism’. Serhiy called these “the standard charges used against patriots who don’t give up”.
Russia claimed that Osadchy had been ‘detained” in November 2023, with the gap in time likely used to hold Osadchy incommunicado and torture out such ‘confessions’. Tragically, that and some harmless photo might well have been enough in the conditions of Russian lawlessness on occupied territory, where ‘treason’ or ‘spying trials’ always end in a conviction, and no amount of evidence of fabrication can make any difference to the outcome.
