A court in Kharkiv has sentenced Russian serviceman Sergey Tuzhilov to life in prison for a war crime - the killing of a Ukrainian prisoner of war at the Vovchansk Aggregate Plant in the summer of 2024. On Tuesday, January 13, a panel of judges handed down the sentence.
Before the verdict, Tuzhilov delivered a final statement. “The charges are fair,” he said. “I really did this. I repent. I confessed sincerely. So I ask you not to punish me to the full extent, not with life imprisonment. I want to apologize to the relatives for what I did.”
Authorities accuse Tuzhilov, 37, call sign “Altai,” a grenade launcher section commander in a motorized rifle company of the Russian Armed Forces’ 82nd Motorized Rifle Regiment, 69th Motorized Rifle Division, of killing a Ukrainian POW. Ukrainian forces took him prisoner in Vovchansk, Kharkiv region, in September 2024. A year later, investigators notified him of suspicion for cruel treatment of prisoners of war and premeditated murders committed by a group acting in concert.
Prosecutors say that during Russia’s summer 2024 offensive in Kharkiv region, Tuzhilov and other Russian troops seized the grounds of the Vovchansk Aggregate Plant, where, according to the indictment, they killed three Ukrainian prisoners. According to the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Tuzhilov proposed executing one of the POWs to another serviceman, “instructed him in detail, chose the execution site - the checkpoint on the plant grounds - and maintained control of the situation during the killing.”
Two other Ukrainian soldiers captured later were “brought to the plant’s grounds, where, after interrogation, the command of the Russian armed forces gave the order to kill them.” “Tuzhilov then personally took part in the crime, having coordinated the execution plan with another soldier. Each fired one shot to the back of the prisoners’ heads,” the statement added.
The bodies have not been found and may still be on the plant’s grounds, to which Ukraine currently has no access, said prosecutor Nikita Daleka.
The trial began in the summer of 2025 and was initially closed to the public. Late that year, prosecutors sought a life sentence, while the defense asked for 15 years. Six people - the victims’ wives, children and parents - were recognized as injured parties. The court ordered Tuzhilov to pay 2 million hryvnias ($46,365) to each of them in civil damages.
Tuzhilov is the second Russian serviceman convicted for killing a Ukrainian prisoner of war. The first such verdict came in November 2025 from a court in Zaporizhzhia.
In that case, another Russian soldier, Dmitry Kurashov, was sentenced to life in prison. He was accused of killing a POW during an assault on Ukrainian positions in the Zaporizhzhia region in January 2024.
