Russian Captain Convicted for Torturing Ukrainian Police Officers
The court classified the victims as civilians who maintained their protective status, rather than combatants.
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A Russian National Guard Captain has been sentenced in absentia to ten years in prison for ordering the torture of Ukrainian police officers during the occupation of the town of Snihurivka in the Mykolaiv region in March 2022.
On February 3, the Snihurivka District Court of Mykolaiv Region handed the prison term to 34-year-old Anton Kabayev, originally from Russia’s Altai region, under Part 1, Article 438 of the criminal code of Ukraine concerning the violations of the laws and customs of war.
After the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, 2022, Russian forces quickly seized the Kherson region. The invading army then advanced toward the neighbouring Mykolaiv region.
On March 19, Russian troops occupied the 12,000-resident town of Snihurivka, located on the bank of the Inhulets river near the border between Mykolaiv and Kherson regions. The capture of Snihurivka held strategic importance as it is a key railway and road junction providing access to Mykolaiv, Kherson, Kakhovka and Kryvyi Rih.
Ukrainian investigators report that the occupying forces in the town included soldiers from the 23rd Obereg special forces detachment, military unit 6830 of the Russian National Guard, based in Chelyabinsk in the Ural region. Kabayev, call sign Sibir, commanded the second group within this detachment.
From the first day of the occupation of Snihurivka, Russian forces conducted raids and s-called filtering operations – an illegal procedure involving document checks and interrogations. Prosecutors state that on March 20, armed special forces commander Kabayev, accompanied by Russian soldiers, entered a local residence where he ordered the unlawful detention of three men and a young woman. They were all police officers, including a married couple.
The men were separated and placed into different rooms of the house, where they were beaten, threatened with death, stripped and searched for tattoos that might indicate their political allegiance. They were interrogated about weapons, the whereabouts of artillery spotters and their service in the armed forces of Ukraine or the territorial defence. One man was beaten and tortured in the bedroom, another one in the kitchen and the third one in the garage.
According to investigators, Kabayev himself participated in the torture. This included a mock execution, holding a knife to one man’s throat while claiming that he had shot his friend in the adjacent room. As the men were being abused, the detained woman was ordered to sit on a bench in the yard. Threatened with submachine guns, she was instructed not to move, turn her head or speak. She heard gunshots coming from the house and garage and feared that the men had been killed.
The Russian soldiers failed to obtain any answers during their interrogations. They took the detainees to their headquarters at the local cafe in the town centre, ordered them to cooperate and then released them.
Victim Re-enactments
In January 2024, Kabayev was identified. In February, he was charged in absentia, and in April 2024, the case was submitted to court.
According to the verdict against the Russian captain published in the Ukrainian Register of Court Decisions, the victims were local police officers. On the day of their detention, they were in civilian clothes, unarmed, not members of the Ukrainian armed forces and had not been involved in combat operations.
The court examined crime scene reports and victim reenactments. During one reenactment, the female police officer, a victim in the case, recounted how Russian soldiers in balaclavas rushed into the yard. She said the accused introduced himself as a captain and was the only one without a balaclava.
The testimonies given during the reenactments were corroborated by the victims in court. At the start of the occupation of Snihurivka, they were on duty as police officers. After the town was captured, the officers hid their service weapons and gathered at the married couple’s home to discuss the situation.
According to their testimony, they suddenly heard the roar of engines along with the command, “Everyone, face down!” A Russian armoured personnel carrier, carrying about ten soldiers, then drove into the yard.
The victim who was abused in the garage recounted in court that the Russian soldiers already knew that they were policemen.
“They demanded information about other police officers, the location of their service weapons, the territorial defence and the military recruitment centre. They accused him of directing artillery fire at their positions. When he refused, they kicked him in the torso and chest,” the victim stated in testimony recorded in the Ukrainian Register of Court Decisions. “There was a senior officer among these soldiers, issuing commands.”
Another victim was beaten, stripped, forced to kneel and shot near the head – an incident that temporarily impaired his hearing.
“After that, they tied my hands and legs behind my back, put me face down at the edge of a bed so that my upper body dangled above the floor and had to be held up, and then placed an inverted stool under my face, stuffing socks into my mouth,” the victim testified in court. “Throughout the ordeal, they demanded the location of my weapon.”
“The orders were given by the leader, who identified himself as an officer, captain OSOBA_8 [the designation for Kabayev in court records where his personal data is hidden] and provided his mobile phone number,” the female police officer said.
He also asked her if she was a police officer and inquired about the location of her service weapon. The officer was in tears, pleading with the Russians not to kill her colleagues.
The fourth victim testified in court that Russian soldiers interrogating them refused to believe that the detainees were police officers. The Russians insisted they were military and demanded to know where their weapons were hidden. The victim later recognised the accused by voice, recalling that as they were marched down the street to a cafe serving as the Russian headquarters, it was this man – according to the police officer – who held a knife to his throat. He said that his friends were already dead and he would be next unless he revealed information.
He also asked the victim about his sneakers and what running standard he achieved as a police officer. Hearing the response, he commented that the “Russian Guard wouldn’t have taken him,” the victim said in court.
Released by the Russians after being given time to consider potential collaboration, the victims managed to escape from occupation to Ukrainian-controlled territory several days later. Ukrainian forces de-occupied Snihurivka nearly eight months afterwards, on November 10, 2022.
Kabayev was tried in absentia after ignoring subpoenas and court summons; according to the prosecution, he is currently located in a temporarily occupied area of Ukraine.
The investigation revealed Kabayev’s passport details, social media profiles, mobile phone numbers, military rank and place of service, and confirmed that his special forces unit had been stationed in occupied Snihurivka. The victims identified him from a photo lineup of 11 individuals with similar features.
The court did not classify the victims as combatants - that is, as direct participants in hostilities as part of a nation's armed forces during wartime. Instead, the court upheld that the victims maintained their civilian status and were under protective status.
“The fact that the victims were serving as police officers, performing law enforcement duties at the time, does not automatically render them combatants,” the court ruled. “The court has established that they were detained simply for being police officers – not for engaging in direct resistance to the Russian Federation’s armed aggression against Ukraine. There is no evidence in the case to suggest that the police unit to which the victims belonged had been incorporated into the Ukrainian Armed Forces or was implementing tasks that might have endangered the occupying forces.”
Kabayev’s defence attorney from the Centre for Free Legal Aid argued in court for a lighter sentence for the accused, citing his client's status as a serviceman and claiming he acted under duress. However, after examining the evidence, the court ruled that the charges against Kabayev were substantiated.
Kabayev’s defence team has 30 days to appeal. If no appeal is filed and the verdict stands, the sentence will begin when the Russian commander is captured.
