Russia accuses 555 Ukrainians of treason and related crimes since invasion

Since the start of the full-scale invasion, Russia has accused at least 555 Ukrainian citizens of treason, espionage and related crimes, which constitutes nearly 38% of all known defendants in such cases. Of these, 266 had previously been listed in the Ukrainian register of missing persons.

This is stated in a study by “Pershyi Viddil” and Parubets Analytics, The Insider reports.

Entries in the Ukrainian register are made based on statements by relatives or officials, and as of 8 August 2026 it still contained 249 subjects of the study, while 17 people were removed after being released in exchanges or officially declared dead.

Almost 90% of known disappearance cases (239 of 266) occurred in territories of Ukraine that fell under Russian occupation, including Melitopol, Nova Kakhovka, Kherson, Donetsk, Berdyansk, Enerhodar, Tokmak, Oleshky and Skadovsk.

In total, 454 of the 555 subjects (81.8%) were first detained on the territory of Ukraine, another 100 — within the internationally recognized borders of Russia, and one — in Kazakhstan. By the time the study concluded, Russian courts had handed down verdicts to 402 Ukrainians, with 241 sentences (60.1%) issued by courts in the occupied territories of Ukraine, and the most among individual courts was handed down by the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don — 65.

Sentences are known for 382 convicted persons: seven received life imprisonment, while the rest were given terms from five years to 27 years and 9 months of imprisonment, with a median term of 14 years, which in cases that included articles on terrorism or sabotage rose to 18 years. The nature of the charges was established for 323 people: more than half of the cases (176, or 54.5%) are related to collecting and transmitting to Ukraine information Russian troops, equipment and infrastructure; 37 people are accused of preparing or committing terrorist attacks and murders; 34 — of providing financial assistance to Ukraine; 15 — of sabotage; and another 15 — of serving in or attempting to join the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other Ukrainian formations.

At the time of the study, 534 of the 555 subjects remained deprived of liberty, with the exact place of detention known for only 360 of them (236 are held in facilities on the territory of Russia, to which they are transferred in particular to Siberia, the Far East and the Far North, and 124 — in pre-trial detention centers and colonies in the occupied territories of Ukraine). The authors of the report note that 555 persons is not a complete number of subjects, as the names of approximately 30% of the accused remain unknown due to the closed nature of the proceedings and the absence of personal data in court records.