Russian senator and former deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation from the United Russia party Ihor Kastyukevych has been found guilty of cruel treatment of the civilian population and other violations of the laws and customs of war in Kherson region.
This became known from the court verdict.
The court fully proved Kastyukevych’s guilt (who during the commission of the crime had the operational call sign “Navigator”) in coordinating and personally participating in the torture of a civilian resident of Kherson region in the autumn of 2022.
The victim in the case is a physical education teacher and leader of tourist clubs from the village of Velyka Lepetykha in Kakhovka district. Because of his pro-Ukrainian stance and unwillingness to cooperate with the Russians, the man refused to return to work at the lyceum after the occupation and took a job as a tractor driver for a local farmer.
On 2 September 2022, five armed Russian servicemen arrived at his house. They led the teacher’s wife and 15-year-old son out into the yard (the teenager was held at the muzzle of an automatic rifle), and they took the man into the house and began to beat him brutally with kicks, accusing him of stealing school tourist equipment.
After the search the detainee was brought under escort to the building of the seized Velyka Lepetykha village council. There, the interrogation of the civilian was headed personally by Ihor Kastyukevych.
The Russian official deliberately pressed his military boots onto the man’s feet and demanded confessions of cooperation with the SBU. Not receiving the desired answers, Kastyukevych moved to psychological pressure:
“He took out a pistol, pulled the slide, put the barrel to my head and began to threaten to kill me. He called me “animal” and shouted that he would shoot me like a Ukrainian spotter,” — the victim told the court.
The beating was then continued by the Russian servicemen in the presence of Kastyukevych, who fully controlled the process and gave instructions when to stop. The occupiers struck the teacher with the butt of a rifle on the head, neck and torso, threatened to shoot his knees, to hand his wife “over to be torn apart by soldiers in Enerhodar”, and also simulated cutting off an ear by putting a knife to it.
At the end of the interrogation Kastyukevych personally ordered the soldiers: “Lock up this idiot, then we’ll figure out what to do with him.”
The detainee was held in the captured Velyka Lepetykha police station. There the man was unlawfully detained for three days in unsanitary conditions and without food.
On 5 September 2022, having found no evidence, he was released. Later the family was able to leave for territory controlled by Ukraine.
The court found Ihor Kastyukevych guilty under part 2 of Article 28, part 1 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (an intentional crime against peace, the security of humanity and the international legal order) and sentenced him to 10 years imprisonment for this crime.
Since Kastyukevych had already been convicted by the Ternopil City District Court verdict of 26 February 2025 for encroachment on the territorial integrity of Ukraine (part 3 of Article 110 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) to 15 years in prison, the court applied the provisions of part 4 of Article 70 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
By absorbing the lesser punishment into the harsher one, the court imposed on Kastyukevych a final term — 15 years imprisonment with confiscation of all his property.
Recall that Ihor Kastyukevych appeared in occupied Kherson region almost immediately after the start of the full-scale invasion. At first he distributed humanitarian aid, and later began to implement occupation policy in Kherson region.
In May 2022 he stole books from village libraries in the Skadovsk area and tried to indoctrinate local schoolchildren. In the autumn of 2022 he looted museums.
In December 2022, after fleeing Kherson, Kastyukevych created a regional branch of United Russia in occupied Kherson region.
In June 2023 the SBU informed him and two other people of suspicion of deporting children from Kherson.
In September 2023 he submitted a statement to relinquish his powers as a State Duma deputy.
After the illegitimate Russian elections were held in the temporarily occupied territories of Kherson region in the autumn of 2023, Kastyukevych is referred to as a representative from the legislative body of the “state authority” of Kherson Oblast in the Federation Council of Russia.
Because of his support for the Russian-Ukrainian war, he is under personal sanctions by 27 EU countries, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Switzerland, Australia, Japan, Ukraine, and New Zealand.