Alexandr Mukhin

A rifleman. He served in the Azov Regiment from September 2017 to November 2018. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison. The case originally involved 24 defendants. All of them had served in the Azov Regiment at different times and in different positions. Many had never held a weapon in their hands or had left military service long before the war began.

All of them are charged with the violent seizure of power (Part 4 of Article 35 and Article 278 of the Russian Criminal Code) and organising the activities of a terrorist organisation (Part 1 of Article 205.5 of the Russian Criminal Code). Some of the defendants are also charged with undergoing training for terrorist activities (Article 205.3 of the Russian Criminal Code). The prosecution requested prison sentences ranging from 16 to 24 years for the defendants, with all male defendants to serve their sentences in maximum-security penal colonies. Two Ukrainian servicemen–Davyd Kasatkin and Dmytro Labinskyi–were exchanged before the trial began; Oleksandr Ishchenko died in pre-trial detention. In September, nine Ukrainian women who had served in the Azov Regiment–eight cooks and one storekeeper–returned home as part of a prisoner exchange. Those defendants who were exchanged continue to be tried in absentia in Russia.

2020s

Reading time: 6 minutes

The Final Statement

‘At the time when I was serving, those territories–the DPR and the LPR–were part of Ukraine. Russia did not deny this.’

‘I’d like to say so much more. I apologise for being blunt, but please try to understand me–when you’re accused of something you never did and simply could not have done… You’re not a terrorist. I, at one time, was a serviceman in the Ukrainian army. I never committed any terrorist acts. I never underwent any training in terrorist activities, explosives, or anything of the sort–I don’t know how to do those things because I was never taught.

I completed the standard basic military training, just like ordinary soldiers in any unit of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, or the Russian National Guard. It was the usual basic training course for new recruits.

As for overthrowing the government–that’s complete nonsense. First of all, I’m a former serviceman. I left the military in 2018 of my own free will. I completed my service voluntarily.

The main point is this: my duties, and what I actually did, consisted of guarding facilities. It was called anti-amphibious defence, and that was it. It was ordinary guard duty, which I carried out for nearly three years. As far as we know, the current commander of that unit has never even been charged with overthrowing the government. So I honestly don’t understand how this is supposed to have happened. Was I allegedly planning to overthrow the government without my commander’s knowledge? It simply doesn’t make sense to me.

At the time when I was serving, those territories–the DPR and the LPR–were part of Ukraine. Russia did not deny this. On the contrary, Russia’s official position was that they were Ukrainian territory and that a civil war was taking place there. Those Ukrainian territories were incorporated into Russia only in 2022. By that time, I was already in prison, in Donetsk Detention Centre No. 1, where I had been held since earlier that same year–about six months before the DPR and the LPR were incorporated into the Russian Federation. So once again–what government was I supposedly trying to overthrow? How was that even possible?

The same applies to the accusation of involvement in a terrorist organisation. By the time your law was passed declaring this unit of the National Guard of Ukraine a terrorist organisation, I was no longer serving in that unit. In fact, I had already been discharged from it three years earlier.

I was a civilian, living an ordinary civilian life. I lived, worked, and went about my business. I had nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism. In Ukraine, I had never even received an administrative citation–not even a fine for smoking in the wrong place or drinking alcohol in public. Nothing at all.

Then, suddenly, while I was at home in Mariupol, everything changed. The war began. Some men came into my house, beat me, put a bag over my head, and took me away. That happened on either 20 or 21 March.

After that, I officially turned up at Donetsk Detention Centre No. 1. I was brought there on either 7 or 8 April. Hardly anyone seems interested in where I was during that period–from 20 March 2022 until 8 April. To be honest, I don’t know where I was myself–the bag hardly ever came off my head.

As for the documents I signed–I have no idea what I was signing. They kept telling me, ‘Sign it, everything will be fine, Sanya. Just sign it. You can see we’re treating you well. Otherwise, you know we can…’–’I know,’ I replied. ‘I’ll sign.’–’And then,’ they said, ‘you can explain everything in court… You didn’t actually do any of this, did you?’–’No.’–’Well, then that’s exactly what you’ll say.’

Laughter in the courtroom.

I’m not performing for the audience, not in the slightest. I’m not amused, and I don’t find any of this funny. As I said, deep down I still can’t believe this is really happening to me–for the third year now, almost the fourth. Every part of me rejects it. I can’t comprehend it or come to terms with it, especially because of one question–what for? I didn’t do any of this. I served in the military. I tried it and, frankly, I didn’t like it. I left because it wasn’t for me–the military duties, the regulations, the drill.

I repeat once again: I never committed, nor intended to commit, any terrorist acts. The Russian government… How exactly was I supposed to overthrow it in 2019? Without my commanders knowing? What would that even have looked like? My commander calls: ‘Mukhin, why aren’t you on duty?’–’Oh, I went off to overthrow the Russian government.’–’Why aren’t you at your checkpoint?’–’I was somewhere around Donetsk.’

They would have discharged me on psychiatric grounds–they would have said I was mentally unstable and unfit for service. No sane person would ever say something like that.

Now I’m facing a huge prison sentence, and once again I cannot understand why. There isn’t a single piece of credible evidence to support any of this. Some internet materials, online resources… I had one social media account with five or six photos–no more than that. Pictures of my daughter in the park, at the outdoor gym–ordinary, completely neutral things. Yet somehow they looked at them and concluded that I was planning to overthrow the government, organise terrorism, and had supposedly received specialised training… It makes no sense. In my opinion, this entire case has been fabricated, manufactured, and falsified, to the point of absurdity.

Once again, I have never had any problems with the law. I always tried to live as a law-abiding citizen. Even if someone stole an elderly woman’s wallet, there would still have to be a proper investigation–questioning witnesses, collecting evidence, and following legal procedures. You can’t simply point at someone and call them a thief who intended to rob an old woman. Yet it turns out that branding someone a terrorist or a would-be usurper of power is much easier. As I understand it, no evidence is even required–just four letters, the name of the unit: ‘Azov’.

But again, I signed my contract not with ‘Azov’ but with the National Guard of Ukraine, which is a regular military force. ‘Azov’ is also a regular unit within the regular Ukrainian armed forces.

The ‘Azov’ people are talking about from 2014–I wasn’t there. Back then it was some volunteer battalion that wasn’t subordinate to anyone. I don’t know who served in that battalion–they were two entirely different units. I served in the Azov Regiment, which belonged to Military Unit 3057 of the National Guard of Ukraine, the organisation with which I signed my contract. I was assigned to the Azov Regiment to serve under contract. No one taught me anything like terrorism there. I was taught how to handle a weapon–but what is terrorist about that? Any serviceman has to learn the basic handling of their standard-issue weapon, the one recorded in their military ID. I received that training, just as everyone in the unit did.

Unlike the so-called evidence of my guilt, there actually is evidence showing where I served, when I signed my contract, what position I held, and what rank I had. All of that exists somewhere in the files. They even obtained copies of my military ID and service documents and showed them to me. Those documents are part of my case. I see absolutely nothing terrorist about them–they simply show that I was an ordinary serviceman.

What else? As for alleged Russophobia–again, I was born in the Russian-speaking city of Mariupol. I have spoken Russian all my life and speak it quite well. My relatives always speak Russian. My friends speak Russian. How could I possibly condemn or force someone because they speak Russian when I myself am Russian-speaking? Surely you can see how absurd that sounds.

I do not admit my guilt. I do not admit my guilt. Yes, I served. Yes, I was a serviceman. Then I left the military. So how does that make me a terrorist?’

19 March 2025
Southern District Military Court, Rostov-on-Don, Russia
Source: Mediazona
More about the case: Memorial
Photo: Aleksandra Astakhova / Mediazona