Evgenii Piatigorets

He served in the Ukrainian "Aidar" battalion as a driver. In 2021, he was discharged from the unit. In March 2022, Piatigorets was detained, then returned home - according to his mother, with "broken ribs and bound hands". On 6 April, he was detained again; he was in the occupied territory of the Donetsk region of Ukraine. 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 DPR part of its territory, the charges were reclassified in accordance with the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation: Piatigorets 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 actual participation in hostilities; additionally, they consider the charges to be absurd. "Mediazona" reported that the case of Piatigorets was separated from the large case of Ukrainian servicemen; however, his name appears on the card of this case on the court's website. According to the newspaper, the court decided to separate Piatigorets' case into a separate proceeding as early as December 1, 2023, when the prosecutor said that a case of "use of prohibited means and methods of warfare by the Ukrainian security forces" had also been opened against him.