Sergei Tsigipa

An elderly man, a retired major, formerly served in the KGB of the USSR, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Ukrainian Armed Forces. He was also a three-term member of the Nova Kakhovka city council, as well as a writer and journalist.

After Russia launched its full-scale invasion, he took part in volunteer work, organised pro-Ukraine rallies and reported on events in the south of the country.

Sergei Tsygipa disappeared on March 12, 2022. That same day, Russian forces seized Aleksandr Tarasov, an organizer of rallies in Kherson. After being released from captivity, Tarasov said that during the first few days they were held together in the basement of the Kherson regional administration building, before being taken to a pre-trial detention center in Crimea. There, Tsigipa — like other illegally detained Ukrainians — was subjected to ill-treatment and torture. His family received official information about his whereabouts only in autumn 2022.

From October 2022 until August 2023, lawyer Refat Iunus was unable to obtain access to his client. In response to all lawyer’s requests, investigators repeatedly forwarded handwritten notes supposedly from Sergei Tsigipa refusing legal assistance. The lawyer was allowed into the case only once the trial had begun, when at the very first hearing Sergei Tsigipa publicly stated that he wanted Iunus to represent him.

On 27 December, the Kyiv District Court of Simferopol placed Tsigipa in custody for two months on espionage charges, that period that was subsequently extended. On 13 July 2023, his case was sent to court, and on October 6, 2023 he was sentenced to 13 years in a strict-regime penal colony.