The Ukrainian Teens Tried As 'Terrorists' In Russia

KYIV -- In the first days of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February, Viktor Azarovsky's hometown of Melitopol was quickly occupied by Russian troops.

Despite the military taking over his city, in Ukraine's southeastern Zaporizhzhya region, the teenager's life remained largely the same, although he now studied remotely at a Ukrainian school.

But at the end of October 2023, when he was 16, unknown individuals detained the teenager when he was leaving his house. He is now on trial in Russia on charges of organizing a group that planned a terrorist attack, sabotage, and the manufacture and storage of explosives.

Azarovsky is one of several Ukrainian teenagers who have been taken to Russia and face charges of espionage, sabotage, treason, and terrorism -- crimes for which human rights defenders and lawyers say there is no evidence.

Kateryna Bobrovska, a human rights activist and lawyer, has been helping to bring home children who were deported to Russia and represents Azarovsky.

"A white van pulled up, and people in black, wearing masks, dragged him into the car. The neighbors saw what happened," she told RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service.

Two other teenagers from Melitopol, Oleg Shokola and Denis Vasilik, were detained at the same time and are facing the same charges as Azarovsky.

The initial period after Azarovsky's arrest was a trying time for his family. "No one understood what was happening," Bobrovska said. "Viktor couldn't get in touch. After a while, eyewitnesses saw him and told me that he was exhausted, very frightened, and had signs of being beaten and tortured," she said.

Currently, the three young men are on trial in Russia. A copy of an earlier Russian court ruling, obtained by RFE/RL, states that Azarovsky was detained on October 31, 2023; the other two teenagers, Shokola and Vasilik, were detained shortly before him. At the time of their arrests, Vasilik was 16 and Shokola was 17.

According to the copy of the Russian court ruling, the investigation took place in Russian-occupied Melitopol. Then the three boys were transferred to a detention center in Mariupol, another city in southeastern Ukraine captured and occupied by Russian forces in May 2022. Thereafter, they were taken to a detention center in Taganrog, a port city in southwestern Russia, where they are being held in a cell with adult prisoners.

"Viktor celebrated his 18th birthday there," Bobrovska said. "The cell is for eight people, but there were 16.

For her young client, it has been torture, Bobrovska said: "He began to have serious skin problems -- he could hardly sleep, couldn't eat, and the skin on his hands was covered with a thick crust. No visits to doctors helped."

According to a copy of the court ruling, since November 2024, the case of the three Ukrainian teenagers has been under consideration by the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don, a large city in southwestern Russia. The court has yet to reach a verdict. However, the boys continue to be held in custody as what the Russian authorities have called a preventive measure.

"They were tortured there and forced to tell a story that never happened. They were accused of attempting to blow up a Russian police lieutenant-colonel and planting explosives on railroad tracks. In other words, Ukrainian children were declared 'terrorists,'" Bobrovska said.

There is absolutely no evidence for that, the lawyer said: "During the search, they seized equipment -- phones, computers -- and found nothing."

Kateryna Rashevska, a lawyer at the Ukrainian-based Regional Center For Human Rights, said that the serious charges the teenagers face -- of planning a terrorist act and manufacturing and storing explosives as part of an organized group -- can result in life imprisonment.

The truth of what the teenagers did -- if anything at all -- is difficult to determine. Regardless, in Rashevska's opinion, the Russian authorities have committed countless violations: arbitrary detention, politically motivated criminal prosecution, deportation, possible torture, and removing their right to a fair trial.

There are two scenarios that Rashevska has considered. The first assumes that the children really were planning a crime, that they got together, made Molotov cocktails or other explosives, and planned sabotage. In that scenario, under international humanitarian law, the teenagers would have the status of individuals directly participating in hostilities.

A grab from a report about the teenagers' detention by a TV channel operating in the Russian-occupied part of Zaporizhzhya region.

"This effectively removes their protected status as civilians but does not make them combatants. Such individuals, in accordance with the norms of international humanitarian law, can be prosecuted, but not as terrorists," Rashevska said.

If this were the case, Russia would have grounds under Article 78 of the Geneva Convention to intern the teenagers -- that is to lawfully restrict their freedom for a certain period of time because of the occupying state's security concerns.

But, crucially, Rashevska said, in the court documents she has seen, there is no reference to international humanitarian law, the internment regime, or the status of the children as being individuals directly participating in hostilities.

"There is no mention of this. They are being prosecuted as criminals," Rashevska said.

Under the second scenario Rashevska has considered, the teenagers are entirely innocent and were not planning any attack at all.

According to the lawyer, she had a similar case in the Zaporizhzhya region, where teenagers were detained for allegedly removing Russian flags from administrative buildings and distributing posters. They were charged with participating in a terrorist organization and preparing a terrorist attack.

When those teenagers were initially arrested, Rashevska said, no explosives were found. But later, the lawyer stated that the teenagers were victims of a setup she blames on Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), which subsequently claimed to have found some explosives.

"If there was no criminal intent in this situation, the children have civilian status; they remain civilians. They did not take part in any combat operations, and they did not cooperate with the Ukrainian armed forces in any way. Such an outcome would mean that they were definitely arbitrarily deprived of their freedom," Rashevska told RFE/RL.

A grab from a report about the teenagers' detention by a TV channel operating in the Russian-occupied part of Zaporizhzhya region.

Regardless, Rashevska said, under no circumstances should officials in the occupied territories or Russia have the right to deport the boys to Russia -- neither for court hearings nor for any investigative actions. This is prohibited by Article 4 of the Geneva Convention and qualifies as a war crime, Rashevska said.

The number of minors deported to Russia for trial remains unclear. Ukraine's Prosecutor-General's Office told RFE/RL that, since the full-scale invasion in 2022, they have recorded 12 cases of minors being detained in the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhya, Kharkiv, and Kherson regions. The charges include involvement in providing targeting information for the Ukrainian armed forces, espionage, and treason.

A report from a local TV station shows Russian investigators searching a secured area.

The crucial question remains whether any of these teenagers will ever be able to return home to Ukraine. Lawyer Rashevska noted that when a criminal case is open or if there has been a court decision, it is extremely difficult to return the person back home.

While military prisoner exchanges happen more or less regularly, Rashevska said, the return of civilians is a more complicated and unpredictable process.

However, there are some reasons to be hopeful. There have been cases -- such as the human rights activists Maksym Butkevych and Leniye Umerova -- who were imprisoned in Russia and later released to return back home to Ukraine.

"Victor celebrated his 18th birthday there. The cell is for 8 people, but there were 16.

The boys were tortured in a really awful way. He began to have serious skin problems -- he could hardly sleep, couldn't eat, and the skin on his hands was covered with a thick crust. No visits to doctors helped," Bobrovska told RFE/RL.

According to a copy of the court ruling, since November 2024, the case of the three Ukrainian teens has been under consideration by the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don, Russia.

No verdict has been reached yet. However, the boys continue to be held in custody as a preventive measure, the lawyer said.

"They were tortured there and forced to tell a story that never happened. They were accused of attempting to blow up a Russian police lieutenant-colonel and planting explosives on railroad tracks. In other words, Ukrainian children were declared 'terrorists.'

The judge will make the decision they want. She doesn't listen to anything at all. During the search, they seized equipment -- phones, computers -- and found nothing; there is no evidence."