A Russian National Guard officer was sentenced in absentia to 12 years in prison for torture and rape in Kherson
A court has sentenced Roman Popov, a soldier in the Russian National Guard, who was found guilty of brutal treatment of civilians during the occupation of Kherson. The occupier, along with his accomplices, held a local resident in a seized detention center, where he subjected him to electric shock torture and sexual violence.
This is evidenced by data from the Kherson Regional Prosecutor’s Office and an investigation by Slidstvo.Info.
According to the investigation, the crime occurred in August 2022, when the convicted man and other Russian military personnel imprisoned the man in one of the detention center cells for interrogation. Popov personally held the victim down while another Russian serviceman raped him with a foreign object, after which the occupiers demanded 100,000 hryvnias from the Ukrainian man’s wife for his release. Journalists identified the perpetrator as a rifleman from the 143rd Special Operations Regiment in the Rostov region, who has now been sentenced in absentia to 12 years in prison.
The process of holding representatives of the Russian armed forces accountable for war crimes is part of the systematic work of Ukrainian law enforcement agencies to document violations of the laws of war. Popov’s sentence marks another step in the legal confirmation of sexual violence, which the occupiers use as a tool to pressure the civilian population. Efforts are currently underway to locate the convicted man and identify his accomplices who participated in the torture at the Kherson detention center. The court confirmed that the actions of the Russian military were coordinated and aimed at intimidating Ukrainian citizens in the occupied territories. The case materials will also be added to international registries of the aggressor’s crimes for future trials in tribunals. Law enforcement officials emphasize that such crimes have no statute of limitations, and punishment will catch up with the guilty regardless of their whereabouts. The investigation into other instances of Popov’s presence in Kherson between March and October 2022 is currently ongoing.
Journalists from Slidstvo.Info found the perpetrator’s page on VKontakte: there, he has an empty account and a few photos.
Roman Popov
Among Roman’s saved photos are images featuring Nazi symbols.
In addition, journalists found Roman Popov’s mother’s page on Odnoklassniki. The woman posts photos with her family and her sons. Roman has an older brother, Nikita, who also appears to be serving in the Russian army.
Svetlana Popova with her son, 
the occupierSvetlana Popova with her older son Nikita and her husband
The mother herself—Svitlana Popova (Feofilova)—likes propaganda posts.
The Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv found a soldier of the 1st Marine Company of the 1st Battalion of the 40th Separate Marine Brigade of the Pacific Fleet of the Russian Armed Forces guilty of a war crime and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
Earlier, based on evidence gathered by the Security Service of Ukraine, two FSB agents were sentenced to 15 years in prison with confiscation of property after being exposed in late October 2025 for coordinating Russian airstrikes on Dnipro.
