Detention: In the summer of 2022, Volodymyr Kryvtsun was abducted by Russian military and FSB officers in the occupied city of Berdyansk, Zaporizhzhia region. This occurred following an unlawful search on suspicion of allegedly planning an assassination attempt on the local collaborator and occupation 'mayor' Oleksandr Saulenko.

Sentence: On April 18, 2024, the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don (Russian Federation) found Volodymyr Kryvtsun guilty on fabricated charges and sentenced him to 11 years of imprisonment. The Russian authorities accused the Ukrainian citizen of 'preparation for a crime and attempted crime' and 'act of international terrorism.'

Volodymyr Kryvtsun was born on April 17, 1970. Before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, he lived in Berdyansk, a cozy resort town on the coast of the Sea of Azov. By late February 2022, as Russian forces rapidly occupied the Azov region, Berdyansk fell deep behind enemy lines, becoming an area of strict administrative-police control and mass terror against the civilian population.

Despite the danger, Volodymyr Kryvtsun remained in his hometown and openly expressed his pro-Ukrainian stance, refusing to cooperate with the occupying 'administration.' In the summer of 2022, he was abducted and taken to an unknown location.

The occupation propaganda fabricated a role for him as an 'international terrorist,' accusing him of preparing to eliminate Oleksandr Saulenko. He was charged under two articles of the Russian Federation Criminal Code: Article 30, Part 3 — 'Preparation for a crime and attempted crime not completed due to circumstances beyond the individual's control'; Article 361 — 'Act of international terrorism.'

The trial took place at the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don, which has effectively become a conveyor belt for issuing repressive sentences against Ukrainians. Alongside Volodymyr, another civilian, Vitaliy Rastorguyev, was sentenced on similar charges, whom the occupiers claimed was Kryvtsun's accomplice.

Information sourced from open sources: ZMINA, Office of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Center for Investigative Journalism.

Last updated: 12.07.2026.