Russia sentences 184 Ukrainian prisoners of war for participation in Kursk operation
In almost six months, a Russian court has sentenced 184 Ukrainian servicemen who were captured in the Kursk region during the Ukrainian counter-offensive operation. This is reported by Russian media, citing data from the Second Western District Military Court located in the Russian Federation. Such sentences have become one of the main components of the work of Russian judges within the framework of the systematic prosecution of Ukrainian prisoners of war, dragging out lengthy trials and applying standard indictment formulations. According to "Mediazona", the cases against the Ukrainian servicemen captured in the Kursk region stand out from other criminal cases in the same region - they are accused of the same article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - participation in terrorist activities with grave consequences. Since November 2024, 159 cases involving 267 Ukrainian servicemen have been brought to court. The public and human rights activists have also noted that the Russian General Military Prosecutor's Office reports new verdicts in such cases almost every day. Usually, these court decisions concern junior commanders and soldiers accused of allegedly committing terrorist acts in territories controlled by the Ukrainian army. For example, a recent case concerns junior lieutenant of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Yevgeny Gocha, who was found guilty of committing a terrorist act - according to their version, he allegedly invaded the Kursk region on October 8, 2024, took up positions near Olhivka and for a long time allegedly prevented the evacuation of civilians, using firearms. On October 27, Gocha was wounded and taken prisoner by the Russian military. Background to the conflict: The Ukrainian operation in the Kursk region began on August 6, 2024. It was a response to numerous attempts by Russian troops to strengthen their positions in the northern regions of Ukraine — in the Sumy region in particular. Already on August 10, a few days after the start of the Ukrainian offensive, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared that thanks to the Ukrainian counter-offensive operation, Ukraine had pushed the Russian occupiers out of the occupied territories and had actually expelled them from almost the entire border. An official representative of the General Staff of Ukraine emphasized that Russia seeks to seize as much Ukrainian land as possible in the northern regions, but Ukrainian forces have launched a preventive process of destroying enemy forces on their own land. At the end of May 2025, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Syrsky, reported that the Ukrainian Kursk operation had largely achieved its goals. According to him, the buffer zone created by the defenders remains relevant and important for ensuring security. As of June 2025, the Ukrainian military controls approximately 90 square kilometers in the Glushkov district of the Russian Kursk region, a fact that confirms the convenient status of the defenders of a narrower but strategically important corridor deep inside enemy territory. Given the numerous sanctions, legal pressure and trials in Russia, Ukrainian servicemen, once captured, face long and harsh court sentences that not only cast doubt on their fairness, but also transform them into a symbol of repression and political pressure in modern Russia. This is yet another proof of the Russian Federation’s desire to use the judicial system to shape the image of Ukrainian soldiers as terrorists and criminals, ignoring international standards of justice and the right to defend its own soldiers.