Russia’s oldest Ukrainian political prisoner spent his third - 77th - birthday on 10 August 2026 in a Russian prison. Volodymyr Ananiev was almost certainly targeted by the Russian FSB because of his unconcealed Ukrainian patriotism and his earlier civic activism in Crimea. Although Ananiev and his wife had been living in Kyiv for some time, Ananiev is from Crimea, and was staying with a friend, sorting out some matters, when seized by the FSB. He was well-known in Crimea and had previously used his legal skills to help Crimean Tatars and others defend their right to land and / or to fair privatization.
No effort was ever made to explain how Ananiev, who walks with a stick and has serious health issues, was supposed to be involved in a purported ‘terrorist plot’ to kill the Russian-installed Crimean ‘leader’ Sergei Aksyonov. Unfortunately, no effort appears to be needed in such political trials, with ‘judges’ at the Southern District Military Court having already demonstrated many times that they will ignore even the most flagrantly fabricated evidence.
Three years in a Russian SIZO [remand prison] are a strain even for young men in good health and Volodymyr Ananiev already suffered from high blood pressure and the knee joint problems which gravely limit his mobility when seized by the FSB in occupied Crimea on 2 February 2024. His health has gravely deteriorated in Russian captivity, and he is now also suffering from a glaucoma, as well as spinal, muscular and kidney problems, requiring proper medical treatment which he will certainly not be receiving in the Rostov SIZO. Such failure to provide medical care is tantamount to medical torture, and Ananiev is also being subjected to brutal isolation tactics, with his wife Hanna Sviatnenko reporting that she has not once been allowed to speak with her husband.
As reported, the Russian FSB claimed on 5 February 2024 to have thwarted yet another supposed ‘saboteur plot’ in occupied Crimea and prevented what they called ‘a terrorist attack on a Crimean leader’. Three people had purportedly taken part in this ‘plot’ supposedly aimed at blowing up a car in the ‘leader’s’ cortege.
The three people, who were described as ‘Russians’, were identified as Volodymyr Bodnar (b. 1974); his wife Oksana Shevchenko, and Volodymyr Ananiev (“V.V. Ananiev”), Photos from the FSB video were shown of all three, with Ananiev even described as disabled and seen with a stick. Although the Russian state media claimed that all three had admitted the charges, the video only showed Bodnar giving a supposed ‘confession’ which was mostly too smooth until the moment where Bodnar appeared to have forgotten ‘his lines’ and became flustered.
Worth noting that Ananiev is known to have been seized on 2 February 2024, three days before the FSB announcement. It is more than likely that Volodymyr Bodnar and Oksana Shevchenko were held without being officially detained even longer, with such periods standardly used to extract ‘confessions’ through torture and threats. Despite this having allegedly been a ‘plot’, Russia staged three separate ‘trials’, with both Bodnar and Shevchenko agreeing to ‘cooperate’ with the prosecution. By then, all three had been added to Russia’s notorious ‘register of terrorists and extremists’, and the two may well have been threatened with significantly worse sentences if they denied the charges.
Oksana Shevchenko was sentenced on 14 May 2025 to 10 years’ medium-security imprisonment, as well as a 500-thousand rouble fine. The sentence was passed by ‘judge’ Denis Vasilievich Stepanov from the Southern District Military Court. Just over a month later, on 23 June 2025, Volodymyr Bodnar was sentenced to 13 years’ maximum-security imprisonment and the same 500-thousand rouble fine. ‘Judge’ Konstantin Igorevich Prostov ordered that Bodnar serve the first three years in a prison, the harshest and most restrictive, of Russian penal institutions, with the remainder in a prison colony. He also imposed a steep 500 thousand rouble fine.
The ‘case’ against Volodymyr Ananiev was passed to the same Southern District Military Court in Rostov, under presiding ‘judge’ Denis Aleksandrovich Galkin in January 2025, Ananiev had initially only been charged with the illegal procurement, possession, etc. of explosive substances (under Article 222.1 § 3a of Russia’s criminal code), however in November 2024 the prosecution also accused him of Article 205.1 (planning to commit a terrorist act).
The nature of this ‘trial’ can be seen in the way inconvenient testimony from the key prosecution witness was changed from one hearing to the next. On 25 November 2025, this witness stated clearly that he was seeing Volodymyr Ananiev for the first time and was not acquainted with him. By 10 February 2026, the same witness claimed to have “not understood the question” and withdrew the testimony that clashed with the prosecution’s case. If, as seems likely, this supposed ‘witness’ was Bodnar, the switch is of critical importance. Since he is in Russian captivity, it would be extremely easy to put pressure on him to change the testimony, with ‘judge’ Galkin well enough versed in the ways of these political trials, to know not to ask questions.
The next hearing is scheduled for 25 August.
