Halya Coynash, 27 July 2026

Ukrainian sentenced to 12 years for ‘endangering Russian security’ through donation to Ukraine’s defenders

Victor Nikitenko was 'accused' by the aggressor state which invaded Ukraine of seeking to help the men and women in defending his country

Victor Nikitenko in the occupation ’court’

The aggressor state which invaded Victor Nikitenko’s home in Pryazovske (Zaporizhzhia oblast)’ has used the kangaroo court it installed to sentence the Ukrainian to 12 years in the harshest of Russia’s prison colonies. It claimed that the 58-year-old Ukrainian’s donations to the armed defenders of his own, invaded, country were “aimed at causing damage to the security of the Russian Federation”.

Essentially nothing is known about Victor Nikitenko (b. 1968) except for what can be deduced from the information about his sentence. It is not clear how long he has been in Russian captivity, but he has not taken Russian citizenship which is already a statement given that Russia has made it almost impossible to live on occupied territory without accepting the aggressor state’s passport. A statement that could have prompted the invaders’ attention and Nikitenko’s seizure.

Russia generally uses this foisted citizenship to claim that donations to Ukraine’s Armed Forces constitute ‘state treason’. Unable to use this assertion in Nikitenko’s case, they resorted to another charge no less cynical. Using Article 276.1 of Russia’s criminal code, they called the Ukrainian living in occupied Ukraine, “a foreign national on the territory of the Russian Federation” and accused him of “providing assistance to the enemy with activities aimed against the security of Russia”.

He was alleged to have done this by making twelve money transfers, equivalent to around 36 euros, and by buying Ukraine’s war bound for over 11 thousand euro (almost 465 thousand UAH). This is supposed to have been from December 2024 through March 2025 and, if true, means that he was abducted no earlier than April 2025. Russia has passed sentences of 12 to 17 years for donations as small as 11 euros. It remains worryingly unclear how the occupation regime finds out about such donations. This may be through searches – on the street or at a person’s home – when the FSB would force the person to unlock phone and banking apps. It is, unfortunately, also possible that the Internet providers provide such information, or even that certain apparent addresses for donations are, in fact, Russian set-ups. That could, in fact, be the case here as the ‘court press service’ specifically mentions that Nikitenko used “bank cards obtained on Telegram” from December 2024 through March 2025. The report states that these were “for Ukraine’s Armed Forces to buy means of attack, defence, communications, drones and other purposes aimed at causing damage to the security of the Russian Federation”.

Even the circumstances of Nikitenko’s seizure are unclear. A propaganda video which must have come from the occupation enforcement bodies, showed not only the sentence passed by an unnamed ‘judge’ from the occupation ‘Zaporizhzhia regional court’, but also Nikitenko’s supposed ‘arrest’. Since Russia’s invasion of Crimea, there have been several cases on occupied territory where the videoed ‘arrests’ have evidently been staged, or have been reported as though recent although, from the clothes, leaves on the trees, etc., they had to have taken place months earlier. Here the invaders do not seem able to decide whether he was seized in his own home, or on the street, with Nikitenko shown very brutally forced to the ground and restrained in both versions.

The ‘prosecutor’ in the case was Kirill Osipchuk. The ‘judge’s’ face is blurred on the video, and the website page which should provide his name has been “temporarily unavailable” ever since Russia set up its illegitimate occupation ‘court’. The sentence was announced on 22 July 2026, with Nikitenko showed in the typical ‘cage’ of Russian and Russian occupation ‘courts’. Whether there were any hearings before the sentence was passed is not clear, nor whether Nikitenko had a lawyer.

Nikitenko was sentenced to 12 years in a maximum-security prison colony, with the ‘court’ also ordering “confiscation” by the invader of money equivalent to the amount Nikitenko paid (or thought he paid) to Ukraine’s Armed Forces.

There is no information as to whether Nikitenko admitted or denied the charges. They certainly should have been rejected, whether or not the donations were made. Victor Nikitenko is not “a foreign citizen” but a Ukrainian helping his own country defend Ukraine and the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ actions are not directed against “Russia’s security”, but against an aggressor state which invaded and is occupying Ukrainian territory.

Other Ukrainians sentenced to huge terms of imprisonment for supporting the men and women defending Ukraine (the list is, unfortunately, most unlikely to be complete, and is increasing all the time)

Halyna Bekhter

Russia ignores urgent medical condition and increases monstrous sentence against 68-year-old Halyna Bekhter for supporting Ukraine

Larysa Bieliaieva

Russian occupation court sentences 66-year-old doctor to 14 years for supporting Ukraine through war bonds

Maryna Bilousova

Russia sentences 61-year-old Ukrainian to 12. 5 years for donation to Ukraine’s defenders

Serhiy Chebukin

Russian invaders sentence Ukrainian pensioner to 12.5 years after torturing out ‘confession’ to links with 'British spies'

Ivan Chorny

Pensioners and mothers targeted for Russia’s ‘treason trial’ terror in occupied Ukraine

Diana Havryliuk

Russia abducts Crimean Tatar trying to see dying aunt and accuses her of ‘treason’ for donations to Ukrainian Army