Sergei Kalinchenko
Sergei Kalinchenko, born 1994. 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): 21 years' imprisonment in a strict regime penal colony. Status: imprisoned; deprived of liberty since April 28, 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
21 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, Sergei completed training at the training centre of the Armed Forces of Ukraine 'Yavorovskii polygon' in the village of Starychi in Lviv region, he joined the 24th separate assault battalion "Aidar", where, among other things, Sergei conducted surveillance of servicemen of the Donetsk People's Republic (DNR) and passed information to the command, and participated in combat operations in the Telmanovskii district of the DNR and in the Krymskoe settlement in the Lugansk People's Republic, used assault rifles 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 DNR.
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 · 21 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
- Igor Gaiokha — Imprisoned, 18 years
- Vitalii Gruzinov — Imprisoned, 21 years
- Vladislav Ermolinskii — Imprisoned, 20 years
- Semen Zabairachnyi — Imprisoned, 20 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, Калинченко Сергей Александрович, 1994 г.р.
Details and sources
Full summary
Commander of the 2nd platoon of the assault company of the Ukrainian Aidar battalion. He was detained by unknown persons in April 2022, was in the occupied territory of Donetsk region of Ukraine. He was charged under a number of articles of the Criminal Code of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic: the investigation considered him one of the organisers of the activities of a terrorist organisation. After the Russian Federation declared the DNR part of its territory, the charges were reclassified in accordance with the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation: Kalinchenko was accused of participation in the activities of a terrorist organisation, forcible seizure of power and receiving 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 hostilities, and in addition, consider the charges absurd. On 17 October 2025 Kalinchenko was sentenced to 21 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.