Alexandr Taranets

Served in the Ukrainian Aidar battalion as a sniper. He was taken prisoner in the spring of 2022, was in the occupied territory of Zaporizhzhya and then the Donetsk region of Ukraine. He was forcibly filmed for a propaganda video. Later in court, Taranets said that he had been beaten beforehand. He was charged under a number of articles of the Criminal Code of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic. 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: Taranets was accused of "participating in 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 as a prisoner of war he must not have been held criminally liable for actual participation in hostilities, and, in addition, consider the charges absurd. On October 17, 2025, Taranets was sentenced to 20 years in a "strict regime colony."