Detention: On July 22, 2022, former Ukrainian Navy captain and volunteer Oleksii Kyselov was abducted by Russian armed forces in the temporarily occupied city of Henichesk, Kherson region. He was held in the basement of a local vocational school and tortured, then handed over to the FSB and transferred to occupied Crimea, placed in the Simferopol pre-trial detention centre.

Sentence: On February 17, 2023, the Russian-controlled Dzhankoi District Court in occupied Crimea sentenced Oleksii Kyselov to 8 years and 6 months in a high-security penal colony for alleged participation in the Noman Çelebicihan volunteer battalion. On August 22, 2023, the occupation Supreme Court of Crimea upheld the sentence without changes.

Oleksii Oleksiiovych Kyselov was born in 1964. He dedicated much of his life to defending Ukraine and serving in the Ukrainian Navy. Kyselov is a retired captain of the first rank. His military career is notable in the modern history of the Ukrainian fleet, as he once commanded the Ukrainian Navy's intelligence ship Slavutych.

After retiring from active military service, Kyselov moved to Henichesk, Kherson region, where he lived for several years before Russia's full-scale invasion. In civilian life, he remained engaged in public processes, actively participating in community and volunteer activities, and leading a local veterans' organization to protect the rights of military pensioners and combatants.

When Russian forces invaded Kherson region on February 24, 2022, and Henichesk fell under temporary occupation, Kyselov chose to stay in the city. His patriotic stance was evident in his volunteer assistance to local residents suffering from the humanitarian crisis caused by the occupation. However, for Russian security services and collaborators, the former Ukrainian military officer with a strong character and community authority became a potential threat and target for repression.

Tragic events unfolded on July 22, 2022. Armed representatives of Russian forces broke into Kyselov's home in Henichesk. His hands were bound, his eyes blindfolded, and he was taken to an unknown location.

As later revealed to human rights defenders, he was held for the first five days in the basement of vocational school No. 17 in Henichesk, which occupation forces had turned into a military base and torture site. There, Kyselov was brutally beaten and tortured with electric shocks to extract false confessions of espionage or sabotage.

After five days of inhumane treatment, he was handed over to the Russian Federal Security Service, who transported him across the administrative border to occupied Crimea.

The FSB investigators officially recorded his detention retroactively, fabricating a criminal case. On July 29, 2022, the Russian-controlled so-called Kyiv District Court of Simferopol ordered his detention in the pre-trial detention centre.

The Russian investigation accused Kyselov of absurd charges under Article 208 of the Russian Criminal Code (participation in an illegal armed formation). He was accused of alleged involvement in the Crimean Tatar volunteer battalion named after Noman Çelebicihan, recognized as a 'terrorist organization' in Russia. The FSB claimed that Kyselov joined this battalion in 2016 and was preparing a surreal 'naval blockade of Crimea' and sabotage.

The battalion's founder, Lenur Islyamov, officially denied any involvement of the former captain of Slavutych in this formation. Despite the complete lack of evidence, one prosecution witness openly admitted during the hearing that he signed FSB papers without reading them.

During his detention in the Simferopol pre-trial detention centre, Kyselov's physical condition rapidly deteriorated due to the torture he endured and his advanced age. However, the detention centre administration ignored his requests for medical examination for months. In protest against the lack of medical care and pressure, Kyselov declared a hunger strike on October 27, 2022, which was supported by inmates from several other cells.

In the fall of 2023, the Russian Federation committed another war crime by illegally transferring Oleksii Kyselov from occupied Crimea to Russia. His whereabouts were concealed from relatives and lawyers for an extended period. Initially, the Ukrainian officer was held in Russia's notorious Vladimir Central Prison, where the harsh regime allowed political prisoners to receive only two parcels a year.

At the end of 2024, the conditions of detention became even harsher. Kyselov was transferred thousands of kilometers from home to correctional colony No. 17 in Murmansk, located above the Arctic Circle. The harsh Arctic climate, lack of sunlight, and chronic isolation severely impacted the elderly man's health, leading to severe bone and joint problems.

The Murmansk colony administration continuously exerts psychological and physical pressure on the Ukrainian. For refusing forced labor, Kyselov was held in a punishment cell for over a month in inhumane conditions. Additionally, he was placed on preventive monitoring as a person 'under enhanced control,' requiring him to check in every two hours in front of cameras and wake up for night inspections by guards.

Information used from open sources: Suspilne Crimea, Ukrinform, Radio Liberty, ZMINA, Detector Media, Office of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.

Photo: Suspilne Crimea.

Update date: 11.07.2026.