Russia kills 74-year-old Ukrainian political prisoner abducted from occupied Enerhodar

74-year-old Oleksandr Markov has died in Russian captivity, while being illegally taken to a prison colony in the Krasnodar region of the Russian Federation.  He is the oldest of an ever-increasing number of Ukrainian political prisoners, POWs or civilian hostages, whom Russia has either directly tortured to death or whose death it has caused through the horrific conditions of Russian prisons and refusal to provide medical care.

News of Markov’s death, from his son, was reported by Dmytro Orlov, Mayor of Enerhodar, on 21 July 2025.  It is understood, however, that he died almost a month ago, on 26 June 2025, while being illegally taken on the gruelling journey, from prison to prison, to a prison colony in Ust-Labinsk (Krasnodar krai).

Oleksandr Markov was abducted on 8 May 2024, with his family knowing nothing about his whereabouts until March 2025.  It was only then that they learned that a fake occupation ‘court’ had sentenced the 74-year-old to an incredible 14 years in a maximum-security [‘harsh-regime’] prison colony.  The so-called ‘court’ had even added a year’s ‘restricted liberty’ to follow the main sentence, as though there were any chance that the elderly Ukrainian could survive Russian captivity.  He was, it transpired, charged with ‘state treason’ under Article 275 of Russia’s criminal code. The aggressor state is increasingly using this charge against Ukrainian citizens living in their own country, after Russia forced them to take Russian citizenship, or face starvation, homelessness or deprivation of healthcare.

If Markov’s family were unable to find out anything about his whereabouts for almost a year, this almost certainly means that Russia’s FSB was holding him illegally, without any charges being laid, and without any formal detention.  Such periods where a person is held incommunicado are typically used to torture out ‘confessions’.  While possible that his captors refrained from direct torture because of Markov’s age, he would certainly have been denied any proper medical treatment and held in appalling conditions, which can generally only be survived when family or friends can get parcels with food, etc. to a person. 

Orlov reports that at least 26 other residents of Enerhodar are illegally held in Russian captivity, including seven women.  13 of them are employees of the neighbouring Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, with Russia having begun abducting and torturing employees soon after it seized control of the plant in early March 2022.   They include: Oleh Morochkovsky; Vadym Trachuk;  Lilia Kachariova; S.N. Dovhopola; Natalia Shulha; Tetiana Klochko;  62-year-old Serhiy Spartesny; Serhiy Korzh; and others.  

Killed in Russian captivity

Russia blocks all information and there is no way of independently verifying information about the deaths of an ever-increasing number of Ukrainian political prisoners; prisoners of war and civilian hostages.

In some cases, it is near certain that the Ukrainian captives were tortured to death, with it immaterial whether the Russians planned to kill them or simply carried the torture too far. 27-year-old Ukrainian journalist Victoria Roshchyna is believed to have died from both horrific torture, and emaciation.  55-year-old Oleksandr Ishchenko, a Ukrainian prisoner of war and political prisoner, also died as the result of injuries inflicted on him, probably as a result of torture.  UN monitors and other international investigators have concluded that Russia tortures at least 90% of Ukrainian prisoners of war, and the number of those effectively tortured to death is likely to be much higher.

Even in those cases where no direct torture was used, this does not mean that the victim was not killed.  It is extremely likely that Oleksandr Markov was the latest victim of medical torture, namely refusal to provide him with proper medical treatment.  Ukrainian political prisoners are often even prevented from receiving the medication that their families obtain for them.

All of Russia’s abductions and prosecutions of Ukrainian citizens from occupied territory are in violation of international law.  Some are also in flagrant infringement of Russian regulations.  Crimean Tatar political prisoner Dzhemil Gafarov should never have been remanded in custody because of his state of health.  He died, aged 60, in a Russian prison on 10 February 2023, after four years of captivity, with each day of this effective torture given his critical level of kidney disease and grave heart problems.  Russia also bears responsibility for the death in illegal captivity of other Ukrainian political prisoners, including 60-year-old Kostiantyn Shyrinh;71-year-old Victor Demchenko and others. 

It is also knowingly placing the life of many Crimean Tatar and other Ukrainian political prisoners in danger.  While the situation is most critical in the case of Crimean Solidarity civic journalist Amet Suleimanov, others are also in danger.

See:

Amet Suleimanov  Russia refuses critically ill Crimean Tatar political prisoner vital heart medication

Servet Gaziev   Second Russian death sentence for a conversation? Crimean Tatar political prisoner’s health sharply deteriorates

Iryna Danilovych  Ukrainian political prisoner issues urgent appeal over ‘Gestapo-like’ treatment in Russian women’s prison