Andrei Sholik
Andrei Sholik, born 1975. Charges: 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): 16 years' imprisonment in a strict regime colony. Status: imprisoned; deprived of liberty since March 18, 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, Medical workers · Terrorism cases
Sentence
16 years
imprisonment in a strict regime colony
Upheld June 2, 2026
Charges
- 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 joined the 24th separate assault battalion Aidar, where, among other things, he conducted surveillance of military servicemen of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), passed information to the command, and also participated in combat operations in the Telmanovsky district of the DPR and the settlement of Krymskoye in the Luhansk People's Republic, used automatic rifles and anti-tank grenade launchers, committed acts aimed at violent seizure power and changing the constitutional order of the DPR in the territories of the Republic occupied by Ukraine.
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 · 16 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
- 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
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, Шолик Андрей Михайлович, 1975 г.р.
Details and sources
Full summary
Sholik served in the Ukrainian Aidar battalion as a medic. He was captured in the spring of 2022, was in the occupied territory of Donetsk region of Ukraine. Sholik was charged under a number of articles of the Criminal Code of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic. After the Russian Federation proclaimed the DNR part of its territory, the charges were reclassified in accordance with the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation: Sholik was accused of participation in the activities of a terrorist organisation and violent seizure of power. Human rights activists note that he is a prisoner of war, so he should not have been held criminally liable for participating in military actions, and also consider the charges absurd. On 17 October 2025, Sholik was sentenced to 16 years in a strict regime colony.
All fields of the record
- Citizenship
- Ukraine
Other people prosecuted under Article 205.5 part 2, Russian Criminal Code
Under the same article, not necessarily in the same case.