UKRAINE, KHARKIV, Oct. 21 — Kharkiv court of appeal upheld a life sentence for Sergey Tuzhilov, call sign Altai, a Russian soldier, who killed a Ukrainian prisoner of war (POW) at an aggregate plant in Vovchansk and was involved in the murder of two other Ukrainian soldiers. The Kharkiv regional Prosecutor’s Office reported on the court’s decision.

Tuzhilov served as commander of the grenade launcher squad in the Russian Army’s 69th Guards Motorized Rifle Division. 

During the second ground invasion into the north of Kharkiv oblast in 2024, he and other Russian soldiers seized the territory of the Vovchansk aggregate plant, captured and killed three Ukrainian soldiers. In September 2024, during the liberation of the plant’s territory, Ukrainian troops captured Russian soldiers, including Tuzhilov.

On Jan. 13, one of Kharkiv’s courts sentenced Tuzhilov to life imprisonment.

The defense appealed the verdict, insisting that Tuzhilov’s prison sentence should be reduced, even though Tuzhilov said he had no plan to appeal in January. The court upheld the previous sentence.

Earlier, the Kharkiv court ordered 60 days of pre-trial detention for Leonid Ryzhykov, a Russian soldier, who is a suspect in the murder of a civilian man and five Ukrainian soldiers in the Kharkiv oblast.

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