On June 30, 2026, the Main Directorate of the National Police in the Kherson region announced that a collaborator from Nova Kakhovka who ran the local torture chamber had been served with a notice of suspicion under Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine for torturing a civilian woman.
Who is the suspect
Moskalenko Serhiy Viktorovych (born October 23, 1978) is a native of the city of Nova Kakhovka, Kherson region.
During the occupation, he collaborated with representatives of the russian federation and held positions in illegally established law enforcement agencies. Initially, he served as the so-called “head of the detention facility of the Novokakhovsk City Police Department of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Kherson region”, and from June 14, 2022, he held the position of the so-called “acting commander of the commandant’s platoon” in the same department.
In March 2023, he was liquidated.
On June 12, 2025, the Novovorontsovskyi District Court of the Kherson region sentenced him to 15 years in prison (under Part seven of Article 111-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) for collaboration. In addition, on February 21, 2025, another indictment against him was submitted to the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv on a number of other serious charges under the Criminal Code of Ukraine (establishing a criminal organization, high treason, unlawful deprivation of liberty, torture, etc.).
Circumstances of the crime
On June 26, 2022, at about 1:00 p.m., Moskalenko, together with at least 11 armed russian military personnel, arrived to conduct a search at the victim’s residence.
When the woman opened the door, Moskalenko, without any explanation, struck her on the head with the butt of a pistol, causing her to fall and lose consciousness. After the search, a hat was pulled over the woman’s head, and she was placed in a car.
The victim was first taken to her workplace at a grocery market for another search and, at around 8:00 p.m., transported to the seized premises of the Kakhovka District Department of the Security Service of Ukraine (26 Dniprovskyi Avenue) for interrogation. During the interrogation, she was pressured to confess to possessing weapons, cooperating with the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and engaging in subversive activities.
When he failed to obtain the answers he wanted, Moskalenko began torturing the victim with electric shocks by attaching wires alternately to her toes, fingers, and earlobes, gradually increasing the voltage.
When this proved insufficient for the torturers, the wires were attached to the woman’s chest — after these electric shocks, she lost consciousness.
After the interrogation, the woman was held in captivity for nearly three months in one of the offices of the police department. The room contained no furniture. The victim was deprived of adequate drinking water and food, leaving her without sufficient and regular nourishment. She also received no medical care.
On September 17, 2022, at around 2:00 p.m., the victim was finally released without being provided with any documents or explanation regarding the grounds for her detention and imprisonment.
Suspicion
Moskalenko is suspected of violating the laws and customs of war, an offense classified under Part two of Article 28 and Part one of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
Cruel treatment of civilians, unlawful deprivation of liberty, and torture (including acts of conflict-related sexual violence) are classified as war crimes because they were committed in the context of an international armed conflict and constitute a direct violation of international humanitarian law, including the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, Additional Protocol I, and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
The criminal proceedings were entered into the Unified Register of Pre-Trial Investigations under No. 12022230000000224 on March 9, 2022.