Arrest: On May 15, 2015, 22-year-old Andrii Kolomiiets, a native of Kyiv region and Euromaidan activist, was detained in the village of Yantarnoye, Prokhladnensky District, Kabardino-Balkaria. He had traveled there to meet his future wife Halyna, whom he met online in the video game 'Tanks'. During a search, 152 grams of 'wild cannabis' were 'found', and Andrii was forced to open the package himself. 'I realized that was it,' he recalls. At the 'E Center' (Department for Countering Extremism of the Ministry of Internal Affairs) in Nalchik, he was held for about a day and tortured with electric shocks: tied to a chair, clamps were attached to his fingers and toes, and current was passed through. 'They attached wires to my fingers and toes, and it shook for quite a while,' he said. They obtained his signature on blank A4 sheets. As soon as he was released, he was detained again and put in a taxi with planted drugs. Later, two 'Berkut' officers—former law enforcement who joined the occupation forces after the annexation—were brought from Crimea to Kabardino-Balkaria. They 'identified' Andrii as a participant in attacks on them during Maidan, although the FSB investigator had photographed Andrii on an iPhone two weeks before the 'identification'. In August 2015, Kolomiiets was transferred to occupied Crimea. The case was personally handled by then-Crimean prosecutor Natalia Poklonskaya.

Sentence: On June 10, 2016, the Russia-controlled Kyiv District Court of Simferopol sentenced Andrii Kolomiiets to 10 years in a strict regime colony for allegedly possessing drugs and attempting to murder two 'Berkut' officers during Maidan. The General Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine refuted both charges. He served his sentence in Correctional Colony No. 14 in Krasnodar Krai, where he was systematically placed in solitary confinement. 'They locked me in the hole just because I was Kolomiiets,' he says. After serving his term on January 15, 2025, Andrii was immediately detained at the colony gates and placed in a deportation center (CTU IG) in Krasnodar Krai due to an expired passport. In July 2025, he was sent to the Russia-Georgia border, where over 50 Ukrainians were held in the basement of the 'Verkhniy Lars' checkpoint without food, walks, and with scheduled toilet access. On July 7, 2025, Andrii was deported to Georgia, from where he returned to Ukraine via Moldova. At the border in Odesa region, he was detained by the TCC due to a search warrant issued by the Obukhiv TCC in 2024. After 8 hours and intervention by human rights defenders, he was released.

Andrii Volodymyrovych Kolomiiets was born on October 20, 1992, in Obukhiv, Kyiv region. An active participant in Euromaidan, he took part in protests in Mariinsky Park in Kyiv on February 18, 2014. Family: parents and younger brother Dmytro, who died in 2017 near Luhansk as part of the 93rd Separate Mechanized Brigade. His wife Halyna remained in Russia; for 11 years, they maintained contact only by phone. They married in November 2016 remotely, through a notary, a day before Andrii's transfer from Crimea. The marriage certificate was issued by the occupation authorities and is valid only in Russia. Halyna even moved to Krasnodar to be closer to her husband and deliver parcels. 'If I didn't have such a wife, maybe I wouldn't have survived there,' says Andrii.

Conditions of imprisonment. During his 10 years in a strict regime colony, Andrii was sent to solitary confinement dozens of times for being late to work, not wearing a badge, and alleged membership in the 'UPA' (banned in Russia). They attempted to open a case for 'discrediting the Russian Armed Forces'. Kolomiiets sewed in the industrial zone to hide a phone and call his family. 'I waited the whole term for an exchange. Everyone was exchanged, I sat,' he says. Volunteers he didn't know personally supported him by writing letters and sending money. Olha Skrypnyk, head of the Crimean Human Rights Group, described the case as 'artificially created': the only 'evidence' was a black-and-white photo of a 'pile of ashes' and a 'confession' obtained under torture.

After returning to Ukraine, he visited Independence Square, where he searched for his brother Dmytro's photo among hundreds of portraits. Human rights defender Olha Skrypnyk described his case as part of Poklonskaya's propaganda campaign—aimed at 'legitimizing the occupation of Crimea in the eyes of ordinary people'. The Crimean Human Rights Group stated that the case was fabricated and politically motivated.

Information used from open sources: Radio Liberty (Crimea.Realities), Ukrinform, ZMINA, Suspilne Crimea, Crimean Human Rights Group.

Photo: Suspilne Crimea.

Date updated: 07/03/2026.