Nikolai Chuprina
Charges: Article 205.3, Russian Criminal Code (Receiving training for the commission of terrorist crimes); Article 205.5 part 2, Russian Criminal Code (Participation in the activities of a terrorist organization); Article 278, Russian Criminal Code (Violent seizure of power or alteration of the constitutional order); “The case of fifteen servicemen in the Aidar battalion”. Sentence (October 17, 2025): 20 years' imprisonment in a strict regime penal colony. Status: imprisoned; deprived of liberty since March 31, 2022; place of detention: Pre-trial detention centre No. 5, Rostov Oblast. Recognition: Memorial: Support for Political Prisoners — recognised as a political prisoner, September 13, 2024.
In brief
Military personnel · Terrorism cases
Sentence
20 years
imprisonment in a strict regime penal colony
Upheld June 2, 2026
Charges
- Article 205.3, Russian Criminal Code — Receiving training for the commission of terrorist crimes
- Article 205.5 part 2, Russian Criminal Code — Participation in the activities of a terrorist organization
- Article 278, Russian Criminal Code — Violent seizure of power or alteration of the constitutional order
Full wording of the charges
According to the investigation, he underwent training at the Armed Forces of Ukraine training centre “Yavorivskii poligon” in the village of Starichi, Lviv region; he joined the 24th Separate Assault Battalion Aidar, where, among other things, he conducted surveillance of servicemen of the Donetsk People’s Republic and transmitted the information to his command. He also participated in combat operations in the Telmanovsky district of the DPR and in the settlement of Krimskoie in the Lugansk People’s Republic, used assault rifles and anti-tank grenade launchers, and carried out actions in the Ukrainian-occupied territories of the Republic aimed at the violent seizure of power and changing the constitutional order of the DPR.
Latest event
June 22, 2026 — added to the rosfinmonitoring list of “terrorists and extremists”
Recognition by rights defenders
- Recognised as a political prisoner — Memorial: Support for Political Prisoners, September 13, 2024
Timeline
· Added to the Rosfinmonitoring list of “terrorists and extremists”
· Removed from the Rosfinmonitoring list
· Appeal ruling
upheld
· Imprisonment begins
Pre-trial Detention Centre №5 (SIZO-5) of the Federal Penitentiary Service of the Russian Federation for the Rostov Oblast
· First-instance verdict
guilty verdict · 20 years
· Recognised as a political prisoner
Memorial: Support for Political Prisoners
· Preventive measure: pre-trial detention
· Persecution begins
The case of fifteen servicemen in the Aidar battalion
Criminal case
The case of fifteen servicemen in the Aidar battalion
- Case number
- 1-21/2025 (1-49/2024; 1-211/2023;)
Other defendants in the case
- Viacheslav Baidiuk — Imprisoned, 16 years
- Igor Gaiokha — Imprisoned, 18 years
- Vitalii Gruzinov — Imprisoned, 21 years
- Vladislav Ermolinskii — Imprisoned, 20 years
- Semen Zabairachnyi — Imprisoned, 20 years
- Sergei Kalinchenko — Imprisoned, 21 years
- Vitalii Krokhalev — Imprisoned, 16 years
- Vladimir Makarenko — Imprisoned, 18 years
- Roman Nedostupa — Imprisoned, 21 years
- Sergei Nikitiuk — Imprisoned, 20 years
- Taras Radchenko — Imprisoned, 20 years
- Alexandr Taranets — Imprisoned, 20 years
- Dmitry Fedchenko — Imprisoned, 15 years
- Andrei Sholik — Imprisoned, 16 years
Thematic group: The case of military service in the Aidar Battalion
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Details and sources
Full summary
Served in the Ukrainian Aidar battalion, stormtrooper. He was detained in the spring of 2022 in the occupied Donetsk region of Ukraine. He was forced to appear in a propaganda video. In court, he said that prior to this he has been beaten and tortured with a field phone. He was charged under several articles of the Criminal Code of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic. After the Russian Federation declared the DPR part of its territory, the charges were reclassified under the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation: Chuprina was accused of participating in the activities of a terrorist organisation, violent seizure of power and receiving a training for the purpose of carrying out terrorist activities. Human rights activists note that he is a prisoner of war, so he should not have been held criminally liable for participation in military activities; in addition, they consider the charges absurd. On 17 October 2025, Chuprina was sentenced to 20 years in a strict regime penal colony.
All fields of the record
- Citizenship
- Ukraine
Other people prosecuted under Article 205.3, Russian Criminal Code
Under the same article, not necessarily in the same case.