Odesa Court Sentences Pensioner for Justifying Russian Aggression

The Primorskyi Court of Odesa found a 76-year-old Odesa resident guilty of inciting national hatred and justifying the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine.

As stated in the court' s verdict, the pensioner was given a probationary period of two years, which was replaced by a four-year prison sentence.

The man posted his posts justifying the aggression on the social network Odnoklassniki, which is banned in Ukraine. The court took into account the defendant's respectable age and his behavior in court, where he expressed concern about possible imprisonment and promised not to break the law again. He is also supposed to read the book "History of Ukraine-Rus". However, it is unclear from the verdict whether the monograph by Mykhajlo Hrushevsky or the book of the same name by another political and public figure and contemporary of Mykhajlo Hrushevsky, Mykola Arkas, is meant.

In December 2024, in Odesa, the rector of the UOC-MP church was detained for justifying the Russian occupiers and praising the President of the Russian Federation.

Analysts of the ElitExpert agency have compiled a rating of the most famous judges in Odesa region. The ranking was headed by Oleksandr Garskyi, a judge of the Malynovskyi District Court, who is known for his sentences in which he sentenced the accused to read books and watch movies for 40 years. For example, in January 2022, Oleksandr Garskyi found a 35-year-old man guilty of inflicting light bodily harm and recommended that he be kinder and read the novel Pollyanna by American writer Eleanor Porter.

The idea was picked up by the Prymorskyi court. For example, in July, the Prymorskyi District Court of Odesa found an employee of the Odesa Zoo guilty of actions aimed at violent change or overthrow of the constitutional order or seizure of state power and sentenced him to five years in prison. However, his actual five-year sentence was changed to a suspended sentence of three years.

In addition, he was ordered to read the works of: Ivan Bahrianyi's The Tiger Catcher, Vasyl Barka's The Yellow Prince, and the first work in Ukrainian literature about forced collectivization and the 1933 Holodomor by Ulas Samchuk, Maria.

Another Russian lover was obliged to read the book "History of Ukraine-Rus" by Mykhailo Hrushevsky while serving his suspended sentence.

Кирило Бойко