The so-called governor of the TOT Kherson region, Volodymyr Saldo, said that five detainees, whom Russian security forces accused of murdering Nova Kakhovka collaborator Volodymyr Leontiev, face life imprisonment.
This is reported by Kremlin-controlled media.
According to Saldo, the detainees are suspected of involvement in the bombing of Leontiev’s car, and allegedly of preparing new attacks.
Earlier, occupation media had already reported the detention of five people in this case, without revealing their names.
At the same time, Ukrainian partisans who took part in this operation reported as early as October 2025 that the people who directly took part in Leontiev’s liquidation were evacuated from Nova Kakhovka to Ukrainian-controlled territory. So Russian security forces could have fabricated the accusations against the detainees.
It is worth noting that immediately after killing of Leontiev the occupiers claimed that explosives had allegedly been dropped on him by a drone “Baba Yaga”, but now they say that the explosives were planted next to his car.
Volodymyr Leontiev – the former head of the occupation administration of the Kakhovka district and Nova Kakhovka.
In March 2022 he gave the order to Russian troops to kidnap and torture the mayor of Beryslav, Oleksandr Shapovalov, for which Valeriy Leontiev was sentenced to 15 years.
In April 2022 Leontiev was notified of a suspicion of collaboration. In the summer of the same year he was informed of suspicion of involvement in the abduction of journalist Oleh Baturin.
In 2024 Leontiev was sentenced to 12 years in prison for the illegal imprisonment of a Kakhovka newspaper journalist, the mayor of Tavriisk and the secretary of the Nova Kakhovka city council.
This year he received another in absentia sentence for participation in illegal elections in the TOT Kherson region and taking a position in a pseudo-governing body.