A resident of Chelyabinsk, a major city in the Urals, has had their prison sentence for a criminal case over a comment about the war confirmed.

In June 2024, the Central District Military Court found Yevgeny Melikhov, a resident of Chelyabinsk, a major city in the Urals, guilty in a criminal case concerning the justification of terrorism on the internet (part 2, article 205.2 of the Russian Criminal Code) and sentenced him to five and a half years in an ordinary-regime penal colony. SOTAvision drew attention to the decision of the cassation court here.

In May 2025, the Supreme Court upheld the ruling of the Central District Military Court.

The reason for the prosecution was a comment written by Melikhov in September 2023 under a news item about the war. According to investigators, Melikhov, “being an opponent” of the war in Ukraine, sought to achieve the end of mobilisation “by any means, up to and including the physical elimination of Russia’s top leadership.” Thus, on the Telegram channel “Insider UA,” under a news report about the Russian army shelling Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, he posted a comment beginning with the word “death.” In addition, under a news post in the channel “Ateo Breaking,” he commented: “We need to send 400,000 NATO soldiers into Ukraine and reach Moscow, like if you would be the first to switch to NATO’s side” (original spelling preserved). He also wrote: “Let’s agree, joining NATO is every Russian’s duty … also for freedom and against dictatorship, an uprising against the orcs and the zeroer himself,” and then left another comment in which he welcomed the possibility of joining the “RDK.”

During a search of Melikhov’s flat, security officers found “subscriptions to anti-Russian channels” on his phone. During the preliminary investigation stage, he maintained that he was against the war and had posted the comment specifically in support of Ukraine. Later, he said that he was not, after all, an opponent of the war, and that he wrote the message “due to psychological problems brought on by general dissatisfaction with life.”

Before the start of the prosecution, Melikhov worked as a technician at the “Chelyabinsk Regional Medical Information and Analysis Centre.” In February, he was transferred to Penal Colony No. 11 in Kopeysk, a satellite town of Chelyabinsk.

This news piece has been updated with information from case materials available to OVD-Info.