Anatoliy Hrytsyk

A lieutenant colonel who served in Azov from 2015 to 2019 in staff positions. He was sentenced to 19 years in prison.

The case originally involved 24 defendants. All of them had served in Azov at different times and in different roles. Many had never handled weapons or had left the military long before the war began. All are charged with the violent seizure of power (Part 4 of Article 35 and Article 278 of the Criminal Code) and with organizing the activities of a terrorist organization (Part 1 of Article 205.5). Some of the defendants are also accused of undergoing training for terrorist activity (Article 205.3). The prosecution requested sentences ranging from 16 to 24 years in prison, and all men are to serve their terms in high-security colonies. Two Ukrainian servicemen, Davyd Kasatkin and Dmytro Labynsky, were exchanged before the trial started. Oleksandr Ishchenko died in pre-trial detention. In September, nine Ukrainian women who had served in Azov, including eight cooks and a supply clerk, returned home in a prisoner exchange. Those defendants who were exchanged continue to be tried in absentia in Russia.

2020s

Cases of justifying terrorism Cases of terrorism

Reading time: 2 minutes.

The final statement

‘I’m not going to tell you, because I know one thing: until your life gets into such a situation, no matter how I describe it, no matter how beautifully I speak about it using different slogans, it won’t reach anyone’.

Initially I didn’t want to speak at all. Firstly, I don’t want to make any excuses. Secondly, you know, I am a career serviceman, I have dedicated my whole life to military service. I went through all the military positions, starting from an ordinary soldier, ending with the commander of a unit, special forces. In 2008 I got a retirement pension, and at the age of 32 I was already a pensioner. At that time one year in the service counted as three years and nowhere in the CIS countries there were in these units the same scheme as one year as three years. The specifics of the unit were peacekeeping activities.

You know, during my military career in uniform I have been to, I’ve counted, 18 countries. I have taken part in missions in four countries—Bosnia, Kuwait, Kosovo… It doesn’t matter. You know, I’ve realized only one thing—I can’t tell people what I am feeling, what I have gone through, how your country treated mine, how they treated my home. How my wife was shot on the road in front of my eyes. How the liberators came to my house, took everything away, completely cleaned everything out, and how they imprisoned me for three years… This is the fourth year.

I’m not going to tell you, because I know one thing: until your life gets into such a situation, no matter how I describe it, no matter how beautifully I speak about it using different slogans, it won’t reach anyone. And God forbid that you feel it. God forbid that your relatives feel it, God forbid that your children and the elderly feel it.

But you know, as a citizen of my country, as an officer, and as a human being… I’m sure of one thing: I have a clear conscience, and I’m proud of it. Thanks for your attention.

Southern District Military Court, Rostov-on-Don, Russia

19 March 2025

Source: Mediazona

More about the case: Memorial

Photo: Aleksandra Astakhova/Memorial