The show trial now underway against Oleksandr Kruchynenko, Mykola Semeniuk and his brother Serhiy, is the latest in a number of cynical farces where the Russian invaders call Ukrainians resisting their armed aggression ‘terrorists’
Russia’s latest show trial of Ukrainians for resisting its invasion and occupation of Kherson has begun at the notorious Southern District Military Court in Rostov. Mykola Semeniuk (b. 6.08.1988), his brother Serhiy Semeniuk (b. 18.09.1996) and a Kherson lawyer, Oleksandr Kruchynenko (b. 1.07.1982) have been in Russian captivity for the past four years. They are now facing sentences of 20 years or more on surreal and immensely cynical charges for partisan activities against an armed aggressor illegally occupying their land, with Russia yet again claiming that such actions constituted ‘terrorism’.
This really is a show trial in every sense of the word, including its timing. There seems no good reason for having dragged out the proceedings for four years, especially since the men do not deny involvement in the impugned events, although they reject the ‘terrorism’ claims.
The invading Russian army seized parts of Kherson oblast from 24 February 2022, with Kherson falling on 1 March 2022. It was liberated only on 11 November 2022, with the invaders having by then created a network of torture prisons and abducted a huge number of Ukrainians, including Oleksandr Kruchynenko, Mykola and Serhiy Semeniuk. The three Ukrainians are accused of an attempt on the life of Volodymyr Saldo, a Ukrainian collaborator installed as ‘governor’ of Russian occupied parts of Kherson oblast, and of the killing of two other collaborators. .
The country which violated Ukraine’s territorial integrity and unleashed a war of aggression abducted Kruchynenko, Mykola and Serhiy Semeniuk in June 2022, and has held them prisoner ever since. The ‘case’ against them was passed to the Southern District Military Court in early April 2026, with the prosecution having come up with grotesque charges under Russian legislation which, as occupying state, Russia is prohibited by international law from applying on occupied territory.
The men are claimed to have, from March to June 2022, been members of a ‘terrorist organization’, supposedly created by officers of Ukraine’s Security Service [SBU]. According to the extraordinary indictment read out at the first hearing on 18 June 2026, the head of this supposed ‘terrorist organization’ was an SBU officer called Yevhen Loboda. In the spring of 2022, he was claimed to have contacted a friend in Kherson, Kruchyrenko “who felt hatred towards the current Russian regime”. Loboda supposedly asked him to find people “wanting to carry out terrorist activities” and to coordinate an underground group in occupied Kherson.
Between 2 March and 27 April 2022, this purported ‘terrorist group’ was joined by the Semeniuk brothers, and two people referred to by their last names as Saltan and Harkusha. All were supporters of “pro-Ukrainian ideology” who are claimed to have planned the so-called ‘acts of terrorism’ “in order to disrupt the peaceful co-existence of states and peoples.” The latter is not the delirious fantasy of one Russian investigator, but a partial quote from the relatively recent addition to Russia’s criminal code on ‘international terrorism’ (Article 361) which Russia began using for political trials after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. According to this dangerously woolly provision, an ‘act of international terrorism’ refers to an explosion, act of arson or other actions, committed outside Russia and jeopardizing the life, health, freedom or inviolability of Russian citizens “for the purpose of violating the peaceful co-existence of states and peoples, or aimed against the interests” of Russia.
The men were supposed to have carried out surveillance of places where Russian military were gathered, of Russia’s FSB [security service], of the Russian occupation administration and “pro-Russian citizens”, with Loboda purportedly providing them with weapons, ammunition, explosives, etc. The first of the two killings which they are accused of involvement in was that of Valery Kuleshov on 20 April 2022. Kuleshov was a police investigator turned traitor, who was likely to be installed by the Russians as occupation ‘head of Kherson police’. Mykola Semeniuk is alleged to have fired the shots which killed him.
While Kuleshov was undoubtedly killed, the alleged attempt on the life of Volodymyr Saldo, chief collaborator and supposed ‘governor’ of occupied Kherson oblast, aldo may or may not have happened. The indictment contains so many ‘suspects’ supposed to have carried out surveillance that it seems highly implausible that they would not have known that Saldo had been warned to avoid the particular restaurant purportedly targeted on 7 June 2022. A person may, or may not, have been injured in the alleged explosion, but not Saldo who was somewhere else altogether.
Dmytro Savluchenko, appointed by the invaders as occupation ‘head of the department of youth policy, family and sport’, was killed on 23 June 2022 when a bomb planted under his car. Serhiy Semeniuk is accused of having planted the bomb, his brother of having detonated it.
All three of these individuals were collaborators, working for the Russian invaders and, as such, were legitimate targets. While hardly to be expected that the invaders would welcome attacks on the traitors they were cultivating, the suggestion that Ukrainians involved in partisan attacks on them were ‘terrorists’ is nonsense.
Yet, the men are facing very long sentences precisely because Russia is using its flawed ‘terrorism’ legislation. They are all charged with ‘taking part in a terrorist organization’ under Article 205.4 § 2 of Russia’s criminal code; with ‘an act of international terrorism’ or ‘attempted act of international terrorism’ under Article 361 § 3 and with several explosives charges under Article 222 § 2; 222.1 § 4 and 223.1 § 3. Mykola and Serhiy Semeniuk are also accused of smuggling weapons.
It seems that the occupation regime reported the ‘arrest’ of Kruchynenko and the Semeniuk brothers a few days after Savluchenko’s death.
Very little is known about the men, expect that 43-year-old Oleksandr Kruchynenko is a lawyer and Mykola Semeniuk is described as a farmer. In fact, Mediazona reports that during the 18 June hearing, when asked about their place of work, the two brothers stated that they had served in the 73rd naval special operations centre in Ochakove, the intelligence division of Ukraine’s Naval Fleet.
