Hearing Over Murder of Famed Children’s Author Adjourned
The body was found in a mass grave in Izium; forensic examination confirmed he had been shot.
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Hearing Over Murder of Famed Children’s Author Adjourned
The body was found in a mass grave in Izium; forensic examination confirmed he had been shot.
Proceedings in the case of the murder of famed Ukrainian children’s writer Volodymyr Vakulenko have been adjourned for two months due to the absence of the accused’s state-appointed defence lawyers.
The hearing at the Dzerzhynskyi district court in Kharkiv on February 18 lasted approximately three minutes. Only the prosecutor and a few journalists attended. All other participants in the trial were absent.
Vakulenko was murdered during the occupation of Izium in 2022 after being abducted from his home by Russian soldiers. His body was later found in a mass grave in Izium, and forensic examination confirmed he had been shot.
According to investigators, the accused - Vladislav Neskorodyev and Sergey Udodenko - are still fighting against Ukraine and are currently located in occupied territory. Their state-appointed defence lawyers, provided by Ukraine for free, did not attend the hearing.
Udodenko's defence lawyer, Anastasia Neioneta, requested an adjournment citing family leave, while Neskorodyev's defence lawyer, Tatevik Akopian, informed the court she was engaged in another case. The victims did not attend the hearing, having submitted requests for the proceedings to continue in their absence.
Presiding Judge Viacheslav Smyrnov underlined that the defendants were properly notified and the court made efforts to ensure their presence at the hearing. Due to the absence of defence lawyers, the judge questioned whether to proceed with the hearing. The prosecutor requested a postponement.
“Following a brief deliberation, the panel of judges has decided to adjourn the court hearing,” Judge Smyrnov stated. The next hearing was scheduled for April 24.
The first hearing took place on December 19, 2024, during which the prosecutor - who has requested not to be identified, citing safety concerns for family members in occupied territory - began reading the indictment against company commander Neskorodyev, call sign Lev.
The prosecutor highlighted that all defendants, despite their participation in the war against Ukraine, were provided with defence lawyers. The Russian soldiers are informed of all procedural steps through legally mandated means. This includes publishing notices of suspicion and summonses for questioning on the website of the office of the prosecutor general of Ukraine and in the official Uriadovyi Kurier newspaper. Information on each court hearing is also publicly accessible on the court’s website. Details about the beginning and end of the special pre-trial investigation into Neskorodyev and Udodenko were also released.
“None of the published notices have elicited any response from the suspects - they simply haven’t appeared,” the prosecutor stated. “Currently, the official court website only lists the date, time and location of the trial, yet the suspects remain absent. Consequently, we have filed a motion requesting a special judicial process to proceed before they appear.”
He added that the trial was now at the stage of announcing the indictment.
“This phase involves presenting the factual circumstances along with the complete text of the indictment. Given that the defendants are absent from the courtroom, and in compliance with the requirements of the International Criminal Court and international criminal law, we are reading the full indictment,” the prosecutor explained.
He noted that the indictment had remained unchanged since it was submitted to the court, with no reclassification of the criminal proceedings. The state prosecutor’s representative added that there is a third suspect in the case, identified as Dmitry Katkalov. Investigations into his involvement are still ongoing, and his case has not yet reached court. In addition to these three persons, other Russian soldiers are implicated, though their identities have not yet been established.
If the pre-trial investigation into other possible participants in Vakulenko’s murder is completed, an indictment will also be submitted to the court. The materials on all suspects will most likely then be consolidated into a single court proceeding.
TORTURE AND EXECUTION
According to investigators, 34-year-old Neskorodyev, 51-year-old Udodenko, call sign Udod and 36-year-old Katkalov - call sign Akademik - along with other unidentified soldiers from the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic, twice abducted Vakulenko in March 2022.
The suspects are accused of murdering not only Vakulenko, but also a Ukrainian veteran and two civilians randomly captured by the occupiers in a forest.
According to case files, on March 22, 2022, at 1.30 p.m., Katkalov, Udodenko, Neskorodyev and other individuals broke into Vakulenko's home in Kapitolivka, a village near Izium. The writer did not hide his pro-Ukrainian views and was often seen with a backpack bearing Ukrainian military unit patches. Vakulenko lived at home with his underage son and elderly father.
That day, the occupiers forcible took Vakulenko and his son to what they called their “commandant's office”. Investigators believe the occupiers attempted to coerce Vakulenko into collaborating with them. Upon his refusal, they threatened him with execution. Vakulenko was forced to remove his shoes and brutally beaten on the genitals before being released together with his son.
Around 11.30 a.m. on March 24, 2022, Russian soldiers returned to Vakulenko's home. Threatening him with weapons, they seized a backpack containing Ukrainian military insignia and patches, forced the writer into a van and drove him away. This was the last time Vakulenko’s family saw him alive.
Investigators believe that Udodenko, acting on orders from Neskorodyev, shot Vakulenko three times with a Makarov pistol. The victim died from his wounds and his body was then dumped from the van into a roadside ditch on the road between Izium and Kapitolivka, about 300 metres from the TAT Nafta gas station.
Vakulenko's body was later discovered by other Russian soldiers. They instructed funeral workers collecting bodies in the city to bury him in a mass grave on Shakespeare Street in Izium. After the area’s liberation, during the investigation into Russian war crimes, Vakulenko's grave was identified through forensic examination. He was buried as body number 319, with no name or other personal details recorded.
