On April 28, 2026, the Desnianskyi District Court of Kyiv found a former Ukrainian judge who betrayed Ukraine guilty of committing a war crime for the persecution of civilians in Crimea.

Who was convicted

Viktor Anatoliyovych Mozhelianskyi (born May 10, 1964), a native of Kharkiv, is a former Ukrainian judge.

In February 2002, he was appointed a judge of the Kyiv District Court of Simferopol for a five-year term, and in December 2005, the Verkhovna Rada elected him to the same position indefinitely. In April 2016, he was officially dismissed for violating his oath after defecting to the occupying authorities.

In December 2014, by decree of the President of the Russian Federation, Mozhelianskyi became a “judge” of the illegally established “Kyiv District Court of Simferopol” under russian law. In March 2019, he became “Deputy Chairman of the Central District Court of Simferopol,” and no later than July 2023, he took the position of “Deputy Chairman of the Kherson Regional Court” in the temporarily occupied part of Kherson region.

On September 24, 2024, the Podilskyi District Court of Kyiv sentenced him to 13 years in prison with confiscation of property under Part 1 of Article 111 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (high treason).

On January 25, 2025, the SBU Office in Kherson region served him with a new notice of suspicion under Part 7 of Article 111-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (collaboration).

Circumstances of the crime

The court found that Mozhelianskyi was directly involved in the persecution of Ukrainian citizens for their pro-Ukrainian stance by applying Russian legislation in the occupied territory.

• The case of Akhtem Chiygoz.

In 2015, Mozhelianskyi ordered pretrial detention for the Deputy Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people over his participation in a rally in support of Ukraine’s territorial integrity on February 26, 2014.

Chiygoz was protected under the Geneva Convention, but Mozhelianskyi, applying russian law, placed him in custody and later extended his detention.

• The case of Oleksandr Kostenko.

In May 2015, Mozhelianskyi sentenced the Ukrainian activist to four years and two months in prison for his participation in the Revolution of Dignity in Kyiv, effectively punishing him for his civic position.

The so-called “judge” ignored the fact that the alleged “crime” took place in Kyiv before the occupation of Crimea, and that both the victim and the accused were Ukrainian citizens at the time.

Despite the automatic imposition of russian citizenship on Kostenko after the occupation, he remained a Ukrainian citizen and a person protected by international humanitarian law.

The court found that these decisions, based on the application of russian legislation in occupied territory, constituted a gross violation of international humanitarian law — in particular, the 1949 Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and Additional Protocol I, which guarantee civilians the right to a fair trial even during armed conflict.

Thus, the defendant’s actions were qualified as the systematic deprivation of civilians of a fundamental right — the right to a fair trial.

The verdict

The court found Mozhelianskyi guilty under Part 1 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Taking into account the totality of crimes (including the previous conviction for high treason), the final sentence is 13 years in prison with confiscation of all property.

The trial was held in absentia.

The Prosecutor’s Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol emphasized that this is the first verdict to directly recognize the use of the occupation “judicial” system against civilians as a war crime.