The Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don has sentenced four residents of occupied Melitopol in a case involving explosions. One of them was given a life sentence, while the other three were each sentenced to 25 years in a penal colony.
This was reported by the Russian outlet “Mediazona”.
According to the outlet, the life sentence was handed to 38-year-old Ihor Haranin. Serhii Harkusha, 54, Serhii Yevtushenko, 58, and Olena Roi, 46, were each sentenced to 25 years in a penal colony.
According to the Russian court, Haranin and Yevtushenko are Ukrainian citizens, while Harkusha and Roi are Russian citizens. At the same time, all four lived in occupied Melitopol.
Russia’s FSB claims that in 2022–2023 the defendants allegedly, on instructions from the Ukrainian security services, organised attempts on representatives of the occupation authorities.
According to investigators, an explosion on 15 November 2022 injured Dmytro Trukhin, who in the occupation administration was responsible for municipal property, urban development, and property and land relations.
As a result of another explosion on 27 April 2023, Oleksandr Mishchenko, deputy head of the Russian Interior Ministry’s “Melitopol” department, was killed. Another police officer was wounded.
The FSB also claims there was an alleged plot to assassinate Roman Pshenychnyi, deputy head for operational work at the Main Directorate of the Interior Ministry in Zaporizhzhia region. According to the Russian investigation, it was being prepared from February to May 2023. Pshenychnyi refused to recognise himself as a victim and to take part in the trial.
During the hearings, all four spoke about torture. In particular, Harkusha said he signed the record without reading it after four or five days of beatings in a basement.
Haranin said he was held in what was described as a “garage” — a secret place of detention. Roi said the investigator fabricated her confession of knowing Yevtushenko.
Yevtushenko, according to the outlet, said the investigator urged him not to retract confessions made under torture and promised that he would be exchanged and that his life would not change.
In his final statement, Haranin described himself as a Ukrainian serviceman who had been sent to Melitopol on a reconnaissance mission. Before the verdict was announced, Harkusha asked to be included on exchange lists. Roi recalled that her husband was an officer and died “for Ukraine’s territorial integrity”.
- In 2025, the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don handed down a sentence to a 21-year-old administrator of the Melitopol city Telegram channel “Melitopol Is Ukraine”, Yana Suvorova.