On April 8, 2026, the Kherson City Court convicted a Kherson prison official under whose leadership more than 1,500 inmates were forcibly deported from Kherson — first to russian-occupied territories of Ukraine and later to penal colonies in russia’s Krasnodar Territory.

Convicted individual

Oleksii Arnaut (born March 24, 1981) is a native of the village of Kupriianivka, Vilniansk district, Zaporizhzhia Oblast.

Before the full-scale invasion, he served as first deputy head of the state institution “Northern Correctional Colony No. 90” in Kherson, holding the rank of lieutenant colonel of the internal service. After the occupation began, he voluntarily assumed the position of first deputy head of the occupation authorities’ illegally established “Department of the Penitentiary Service in Kherson Region.”

Witnesses and victims stated that during the occupation he “changed significantly, became harsh,” personally oversaw the deportation process and threatened the use of physical violence in case of disobedience.

Circumstances of the crimes

After the capture of Kherson in the spring of 2022, the administration of Correctional Colony No. 90 held a meeting and offered staff a choice: continue working under the occupying authorities or resign. Arnaut chose to remain and, in May 2022, took up a senior position in the newly created occupation structure, urging colleagues to accept employment under the occupiers with promises of higher pay.

In October 2022, as Ukrainian forces prepared to liberate Kherson, the occupation authorities decided to evacuate inmates to territories under Russian control. Five special transport vehicles for prisoner transfer arrived in the city from the Federal Penitentiary Service of the russian federation in Crimea and Sevastopol.

Between October 20 and November 2, 2022, Arnaut personally directed the forced deportation. He compiled lists of inmates, assigned them to buses, and issued instructions to guards. Prisoners were taken from their cells, lined up in the yard, and loaded into armored buses with Crimean license plates and markings reading “Penitentiary System of the russian federation,” escorted by armed guards and military equipment. Refusal was not an option: physical force was used against those who resisted.

In total, more than 1,500 individuals were deported without consent from the state institution “Northern Correctional Colony No. 90.” They were first transferred to Holoprystan Correctional Colony No. 7 and later deported to correctional facilities in russia’s Krasnodar Territory, including colonies No. 2 (Dvubratske), No. 5 (Apsheronsk), No. 11 (Akhtarske), and No. 14 (Krasnodar).

The Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions explicitly prohibit the deportation and unlawful transfer of protected persons from occupied territories.

Verdict

The court classified Arnaut’s actions under the following provisions of the Criminal Code of Ukraine:

• Part 2 of Article 111 — high treason by defecting to the enemy during armed conflict and martial law;
• Part 2 of Article 28 in conjunction with Part 1 of Article 438 — violation of the laws and customs of war committed by a group of persons acting in prior conspiracy.

A panel of judges of the Kherson City Court found Arnaut guilty and sentenced him to life imprisonment with confiscation of property. His superior, Yevhen Sobolev, received a similar sentence in a separate case involving the deportation of prisoners.

Additionally, the court stripped Arnaut of his special rank of lieutenant colonel of the internal service.