A former law enforcement officer tortured a married couple in the Kherson region

Former police officer Volodymyr Plyukhin was convicted of a war crime. During the occupation of the Kherson region, he and Russian soldiers tortured a local resident in an attempt to force him to confess to collaborating with the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

This was reported by the Center for Public Investigations.

According to the investigation, in June 2023, Plyukhin headed the criminal investigation department of the occupying “Gornostaevsky OMVD of the Russian Federation” in the captured town of Gornostaevka. On June 2, he and eight Russian soldiers went to the home of a local resident, brutally beat him, and demanded a confession of collaboration with the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Afterward, the victim and his wife were taken to the occupying police station, where they were interrogated for several hours. In court, the man testified that he was verbally abused, intimidated, and threatened with violence if he contacted Ukrainian law enforcement. His wife confirmed the beating and the threats.

He was charged in absentia in June 2025. Investigators also believe he was involved in the abduction and murder of Ruslan Rusnak, a 28-year-old resident of Gornostaevka. Before the occupation, he worked for the Ukrainian police, and after the full-scale invasion began, he defected to the Russian side.

Until 2014, he served in the Ukrainian police force in Energodar. After the full-scale invasion began, he defected to the occupying forces and in 2022 became deputy chief of one of the units of the occupation police in the Zaporizhzhia region.

The court found Plyukhin guilty of violating the laws and customs of war and sentenced him to 13 years in prison. The verdict was handed down in absentia, as the defendant is wanted by the authorities.

Also in June, a former deputy of the Russian State Duma—and now a senator representing the occupying administration of the Kherson region—was convicted of a war crime committed during the seizure of part of the region. The court found it proven that he participated in the torture of a local teacher.

Анна Бальчінос