Igor Gaiokha
Igor Gaiokha, born 1988. 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): 18 years' imprisonment in a strict regime colony. Status: imprisoned; deprived of liberty since April 13, 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
18 years
imprisonment in a strict regime 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 "Iavorovskii polygon" training centre of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the village of Starichi in Lvov region, joined the 24th separate assault battalion "Aidar", where, among other things, he conducted surveillance of servicemen of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), passed information to the command, as well as participated in combat operations in the Telmanovskii district of the DPR and in the Krymskoe settlement in the Lugansk People’s Republic, used automatic weapons and anti-tank grenade launchers, and committed acts in the Ukrainian-occupied territories of the Republic aimed at forcibly seizing 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 · 18 years
· Recognised as a political prisoner
Memorial: Support for Political Prisoners
· Preventive measure: pre-trial detention
Pre-trial Detention Centre №1 (SIZO-1) of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russian Federation for the Rostov Region
· 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
- 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
- Nikolai Chuprina — Imprisoned, 20 years
- Andrei Sholik — Imprisoned, 16 years
Thematic group: The case of military service in the Aidar Battalion
Write a letter
Facility: Pre-trial detention centre No. 5, Rostov Oblast
Address (in Russian, as written on the envelope)
344064, Ростовская область, г. Ростов-на-Дону ул. Тонельная, 4, ФКУ СИЗО-5 ГУФСИН России по Ростовской области, Гайоха Игорь Игоревич, 1988 г.р.
Details and sources
Full summary
Mortar platoon commander in the Ukrainian "Aidar" battalion. He was seriously wounded on 3 March 2022 — his colleagues believed he was killed. He was taken prisoner (according to his mother, before that he was stripped and tried to be killed, but he survived), he was kept in the occupied territory of Donetsk region of Ukraine: first in hospital, since 13 April - officially in custody. He was charged under a number of articles of the Criminal Code of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic: the investigation considered him to be one of the organisers of the activities of a terrorist organisation. After the Russian Federation declared the DPR part of its territory, the charges were reclassified in accordance with the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation: Gaiokha was accused of participating in the activities of a terrorist organization, violently seizing power, and undergoing 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 prosecuted for participating in hostilities, and furthermore, they consider the charges absurd. On 17 October 2025, Gaiokha was sentenced to 18 years in a strict regime 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.