Arrest: On July 25, 2022, Russian military and security forces detained Hennadii at his home.

Sentence: Hennadii Lasinskyi was sentenced by the occupation court to 3 years of imprisonment under Article 222 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Illegal acquisition, transfer, sale, storage, transportation, forwarding, or carrying of firearms”). Before the sentence, he was held for over a year without official procedural status or court decision. Human rights defenders consider his case politically motivated persecution and unlawful detention.

Hennadii Viktorovych Lasinskyi was born on March 19, 1988. He is a resident of the village of Velyka Kardashynka, Hola Prystan district, Kherson region. Before the full-scale Russian invasion, he worked in Ukrainian law enforcement. After the occupation of part of the Kherson region, he remained at home with his family.

On July 25, 2022, Russian military and security forces detained Hennadii at his home. According to Lasinskyi, he was immediately subjected to severe beatings, electric shocks, and demands for information about Ukrainian resistance, local law enforcement, and weapon caches. His father, who witnessed the arrest, confirmed the violent abduction. The Russian side claimed that Hennadii allegedly came to the occupation police voluntarily, which he categorically denies.

After his arrest, Hennadii was held in complete isolation from the outside world. For approximately one year and three months, neither his family nor his lawyer knew his whereabouts. In response to legal inquiries, Russian authorities stated only that he was a “person resisting the special military operation,” and thus could be held without a court decision. Human rights defenders describe this detention as incommunicado, a severe violation of international humanitarian law.

In late October 2022, Hennadii was unlawfully transferred from the occupied Kherson region to Pre-trial Detention Centre No. 2 in Simferopol. Subsequently, the occupation Pervomaisky District Court of Crimea reviewed his criminal case. Russian investigators accused Hennadii of illegal possession of firearms. According to a journalistic investigation, the weapon cache did exist, but it was set up by another man before leaving the occupied territory, and the circumstances under which Russian security forces obtained information about it remain unclear.

After prolonged unlawful detention, Hennadii was sentenced to three years of imprisonment, with most of this term already effectively served by the time of sentencing.

Information used from open sources: Office of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Ukrainska Pravda, ZMINA, Suspilne Kherson.

Photo: ZMINA.

Last updated: 19.07.2026.