Former Ukrainian Police Officer Sentenced for War Crimes
He was found guilty of the cruel treatment of civilians as well as unlawful imprisonment and pillage.
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Such actions are a flagrant violation of international laws which protects civilians in wartime.
A former Ukrainian police officer has been found guilty of collaborationism and war crimes committed during the Russian occupation of parts of the Zaporizhzhia region and sentenced to 14 years in prison.
On December 5, the Zavodskyi district court of Zaporizhzhia convicted Kostiantyn Lysenko in absentia. His crimes included the illegal imprisonment and cruel treatment of civilians, as well as their forcible transfer. The court ordered the confiscation of all his property in addition to a prison sentence.
Lysenko, a 43-year-old from Dniprorudne, had held various positions within Ukrainian law enforcement since 2005 and by 2014 was a detective in the criminal investigation unit’s operational search department. In 2015, he failed recertification and according to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), was dismissed following a criminal prosecution for illegal weapons handling.
According to the investigation, Lysenko voluntarily defected to the occupying forces following Russia’s full-scale invasion and assumed the position of head of the so-called people’s militia within the newly established de facto Dniprorudne police department. This entity was part of the Russian Federation’s occupational administration, which usurped power in the city after its occupation on March 13, 2022.
While holding this position, Lysenko recruited other law enforcement officers, persuading them to collaborate illegally with the occupying authorities. He was also accused of unlawfully imprisoning civilians unaffiliated with the defence forces of Ukraine, employing physical and psychological violence in the process.
According to investigators, on the night of May 26, 2022, Lysenko and other unidentified security officers forcibly entered the home of a local 57-year-old identified only asTetiana. Using violence and threats of physical harm, they unlawfully detained her and transported her to a local police station.
She was held in a detention centre for over eight months on allegations of anti-Russian sentiment, without legal justification, notification of cause or formal charges. The victim endured numerous beatings, including with a metal rod and a pistol, and lost several teeth. She faced constant death threats and abuse and was subjected to conditions that degraded her human dignity.
In January 2023, while illegally detained, Tetiana signed a document refusing a Russian passport. She was then informed of her forced expulsion from Dniprorudne. Tetiana and another detainee - Rodion, a 47-year-old electrician - were forced to walk toward Zaporizhzhia, despite part of the route being mined.
The court also heard about Rodion’s detention. In December 2022 he was arrested by occupation police officers and detained for nearly a month, during which period he was interrogated and beaten by two police officers, one named Lysenko and the other an unidentified individual using the call sign Vnuk. They questioned Rodion about a social media post in which he had written it was necessary to “slaughter the Ruskies and blow up the Christmas tree”.
He faced no trial or formal charges. During interrogations, a plastic bag was placed over his head and secured with adhesive tape. He was later forced to sign a statement renouncing his Russian passport. Subsequently, he and Tetiana were forcibly expelled. Upon reaching Zaporizhzhia, he sought medical attention and reported the crime to Ukrainian law enforcement.
Lysenko was also convicted of a war crime in the form of pillage, after he and a group of his subordinates stopped an evacuation convoy at approximately 6 am on November 7, 2022 at a checkpoint near a gas station in the city of Vasylivka.
Using psychological pressure and threats of physical violence, they confiscated a new Volkswagen Touareg from a retired 70-year-old farmer from the Kherson region who was attempting to evacuate to Ukrainian-controlled territory with his family.
The car was appropriated for personal use and investigators later found it listed for sale on the Russian Avito.ru marketplace. A forensic vehicle appraisal confirmed the damages amounted to 1.8 million hryvnias (42,600 US dollars). The investigation found that Lysenko and his accomplices disposed of the seized vehicle at their own discretion, an act not justified by any military necessity.
“These actions constitute violations of the laws and customs of war, as defined by international treaties ratified by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Lysenko was aware of the protected status of the victims as civilians and acted in connection with the conflict for personal gain and ideological reasons, using usurped authority. This includes inhumane treatment, illegal confinement and forced transfer, which contravene Article 438 of the criminal code of Ukraine and the Geneva Conventions,” prosecutor Vladyslav Turkin told reporters.
All victims testified in the case except for Tetiana. Her health had deteriorated and she died in August of this year.
Rodion testified that prior to his own detention, he knew Lysenko as a police officer who had been dismissed from the service. When the electrician saw a photo of Lysenko with a new status in a local Viber group, he recognised him and forwarded it to an acquaintance.
Although the officers who interrogated him during his detention wore masks, Rodion said that he recognised Lysenko by his voice. He also said that it was Lysenko who drove him to Vasylivka following his expulsion and threatened to shoot him if he ever saw him again.
The farmer provided a detailed description of the man who confiscated his vehicle and identified Lysenko from a photograph.
Other civilians, who had been detained alongside the victims at the Dniprorudne commandant’s office, also testified in court and identified Lysenko as an officer of the occupation police. The accused’s former Ukrainian colleagues provided testimony confirming his defection to the occupying forces.
Another witness, a volunteer who delivered generators to villages near Kamianske, testified that in January 2023, she saw a man and a woman, later identified as Tetiana and Rodion, running through a mined field from Vasylivka and pleading for help. The volunteer, who assisted in their evacuation, noted that the route they took was extremely dangerous.
Other evidence included photographs and videos of Lysenko acting as the head of the “people’s militia” on occupation-run Telegram channels and controlled media as well as telephone conversations between his colleagues.
During the trial, Vladyslav Karataiev, the defendant’s state-appointed defence attorney, argued that Lysenko’s commission of the imputed crimes had not been proven. Citing the evidence reviewed, the lawyer requested an acquittal.
After considering all evidence and testimony, the court sentenced Lysenko to 14 years for collaborationist activities, specifically for voluntarily holding a position in an illegal law enforcement body, and to 11 years for committing war crimes.
“I believe this decision is just and commensurate with the severity of the crimes committed. This verdict is a step toward ensuring the inevitability of punishment for war crimes,” stated Turkin after the verdict was announced.
The court also granted a civil suit filed by the agricultural enterprise Druzhba-5 LLC, ordering Lysenko to pay 1.8 million hryvnias (42,600 dollars) for the value of the stolen vehicle as compensation for material damages.
The court’s decision will enter into force after the appeal period expires, provided no appeal is filed. The defence has 30 days from the date of the verdict’s announcement to file an appeal.
