Two Ukrainian combat pilots convicted in Russia plan to go on hunger strike
I, Oleksandr Hryhorovych Morozov, Ukrainian, a citizen of Ukraine, a serviceman, an officer of the Soviet Army, a pilot, an airfield commander, an inventor, a husband, a father, and a grandfather. Could I ever have imagined that I would be labeled a terrorist till my dying day? Could I have foreseen that my country would abandon about me for nearly two years, that I would see a Russian prison and stand before this court? Could anyone have predicted that the world would find itself on the brink of a catastrophe?
Considering my age and the term requested by the prosecutor, the phrase “last statement” takes on a painfully literal meaning for me.
The accusations against me of the involvement in a terrorist organization and committing an act of terrorism are groundless and unsubstantiated. The act qualified as an “act of terrorism” was, in effect, compliance with a lawful order to destroy the legitimate military target in time of war.
The only organization I have ever belonged to is the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
With these words, a 69-year-old Ukrainian pilot Oleksandr Morozov began his last statement before the court. On March 3, 2025, Judge Anton Kakadeyev of the Second Western District Military Court in Moscow sentenced Oleksandr Morozov to 22 years in prison. The other defendant in the case, fellow pilot Dmytro Shymanskyi, received a 26-year sentence.
In the skies over Russia
Oleksandr Morozov is a former military and a retiree with a passion for flying. According to his wife Inna, in 2014 he and a group of like-minded individuals began patrolling the Kharkiv region border on light aircraft. “In 2016, he joined Civil Air Patrol NGO and dedicated his own plane to medical aviation. The volunteer pilots essentially served as an airborne emergency medical service. However, all flights ceased on February 24, 2022,” recalls Inna.
Volunteers of the Civil Air Patrol project in the Kharkiv region. Photo by kharkivoda.gov.ua
On that day, Russia embarked on a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, partially occupying the Kharkiv region.
“My husband couldn’t sit idly by – he wanted to be useful. Then, at the end of 2022, he was offered a job in Kyiv. He told me that he would continue patrolling the border as a volunteer just as before. He left for the capital in late February 2023. Since then, we had only spoken over the phone,” says Inna Morozova.
The last time Inna spoke with her husband was on April 4, 2023. The next day, she learned from Russian news reports that the National Guard of Russia had detained her husband near the village of Butovsk in the Klintsy district of Russia’s Bryansk region. That was the area where a Ukrainian-made Aeroprakt A-22 Foxbat ultralight aircraft had crashed. Soon after, Russian authorities published photos of his detention and video footage of his initial interrogation.
At first, Morozov was charged with illegal crossing of the Russian border and transportation of weapons and ammunition through the border. The Soviet District Court of Bryansk ordered that he be put in a local pretrial detention center. In July 2023, he was transferred to Moscow’s Lefortovo Pretrial Detention Center No. 2.
Another pilot, Dmytro Shymanskyi, was also taken to Lefortovo. He had been detained under similar circumstances after his light aircraft went down in Russia’s Tula region.
Morozov was charged under ten criminal articles, while Shymanskyi faced seven. In addition to the initial charges, Russian authorities accused them of setting up a terrorist organization (Article 205.4 of the Russian Criminal Code) and committing an act of terrorism (Article 205).
In Moscow, the case was immediately classified as secret. What was known was that investigators alleged that in the summer of 2023 two Ukrainian light aircraft were flying at low altitude with the intent to attack oil storage tanks at the Slava refinery and the Druzhba pipeline in the Bryansk region. According to this version of events, one of the aircraft crashed in Bryansk, while the other made it to Tula.
Inna Morozova says she spent a long time without any information about her husband. News about his situation emerged only months later, when he was finally allowed to see a Russian lawyer who managed to contact his family. When the lawyer met Morozov, he was visibly emaciated and weak due to poor detention conditions and physical abuse.
The first court hearing took place on December 28, 2024. Journalists were allowed into the courtroom for only a few minutes before proceedings continued behind closed doors.
Classified as Top Secret
On March 3, 2025, the day of the verdict, journalists were once again allowed into the courtroom, but only for a few minutes, just long enough to take pictures. While waiting for the judge to arrive, the defense attorneys and their clients reviewed materials from Russian media about the case. They noted numerous inaccuracies and fabrications These included repeated claims by Russian journalists about supposed “testimonies” alleging that Ukrainian authorities had planned to use a so-called “dirty bomb” on the Russian territory. However, the case contained no such accusations.
Convicted Ukrainian pilots in a glass cage during their trial in Russia Dmytro Shymanskyi is on the left, Oleksandr Morozov is on the right
It later became known that the defense had repeatedly petitioned for the trial to be held in an open court, in part to allow journalists to hear primary sources rather than rely on unverified information. The judge, however, denied these requests.
Morozov and Shymanskyi delivered their last statements with no witnesses present. The prosecution had initially requested 30-year sentences for both men, but the judge ultimately reduced their terms.
The defense plans to appeal. They have only 15 days to do so, regardless of whether they receive a written copy of the verdict. In the courtroom, Judge Kakadeyev read only the introduction and the operative part of the verdict. However, even that made one thing clear: the court did not recognize Morozov and Shymanskyi as members of Ukraine’s Armed Forces and prosecuted them under Russia’s criminal code instead.
Judge Anton Kakadeyev
The defense objected, arguing that Dmytro Shymanskyi and Oleksandr Morozov had consistently stated that they were acting as members of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, carrying out a combat order to strike a legitimate target during wartime. Under such circumstances, their actions should not be prosecuted under criminal law. Moreover, under the Geneva Conventions, the Bryansk region is considered a vulnerable territory, whereas the objects the pilots allegedly aimed for, constitute legitimate targets. These include the Slava refinery, which is located 80 kilometers from the Russia-Ukraine border. This facility operates diesel fuel storage tanks used by the Russian army for its operations against Ukraine. Notably, no civilians were harmed.
Morozov asked his lawyer to share the text of his last statement with journalists:
I must acknowledge that this trial did not resemble a fair adversarial process led by an independent judge seeking to resolve legal questions and uncover the facts. I now understand my defense counsel’s frustration over the superficial examination of evidence and the decision to hold the proceedings behind closed doors.
It is no surprise that the court reacted with hostility to our claims about the use of physical force after detention. My ribs still ache – perhaps they healed improperly – but I did not even want to dwell on this. I know that every Ukrainian held in captivity here is beaten and tortured. This is standard practice in Russia. And I also understand that no one will ever investigate what happened to us between our detention and our transfer to Lefortovo, no matter how many complaints my lawyer submits.
I have no doubt that the bureaucratic process of formalizing our conviction is already completed. No passionate defense arguments, no evidence, and no final statement of mine will change that.
Oleksandr Morozov is escorted to the courtroom
Prison in the North
The trial of Oleksandr Morozov and Dmytro Shymanskyi was quick. The court reviewed all classified materials of the case within just two months. It remains unclear when their appeal will be scheduled, but given the way the first-instance proceedings were handled, it is unlikely that the appellate process will take long.
Once the appeal is concluded, Morozov and Shymanskyi will be taken to prison where they are set to serve the first four and five years of their sentences respectively. Russian prisons, particularly those designated as high-security facilities, impose severe restrictions. Inmates are permitted to receive only one package a year, and it is extremely difficult to secure approval for a meeting with a lawyer. These prisons are mostly located in Russia’s remote northern regions, such as Minusinsk or Krasnoyarsk. Another possibility is the infamous Vladimir Central Prison, where both Ukrainian civilians and prisoners of war are already being held.
The pilots are fully aware of what awaits them. In an attempt to draw attention to their case, they are prepared to take the measure of last resort, which is to declare a hunger strike.
Russia criminalizes the defense of Ukraine
“The terrorism charges suggest that the Russian court refused to recognize Oleksandr Morozov and Dmytro Shymanskyi as Ukrainian combatants belonging to Ukraine’s Defense Forces. These forces include not only regular military formations but also other structures that ensure the country’s defense,” says Andrii Yakovlev, a lawyer and expert in international humanitarian law who represents Oleksandr Morozov’s wife, Inna, in Ukraine.
“In Ukraine, Morozov is also not recognized as belonging to the regular military formations of the country’s Defense Forces. For some reason, he is treated as a civilian, unlike Shymanskyi, who is acknowledged as a serviceman. Why this distinction exists remains a mystery,” adds Andrii Yakovlev. “However, the facts show that the charges against Morozov and Shymanskyi pertain specifically to an attack on a military target. The defendants themselves have emphasized this. They insist that they carried out an order to destroy a legitimate target in the context of an international armed conflict.”
International humanitarian law, particularly Article 43 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions, provides a broad definition of “armed forces” (combatants). They include all organized armed forces, groups, and units which are under a command of a responsible person. However, there is currently no relevant information about the circumstances surrounding the detention of Morozov and Shymanskyi or whether the opposing side considered the pilots to be combatants.
“Despite all legal complexities, the Russian court could not ignore the fact that Morozov and Shymanskyi acted in the interests of the Ukrainian side. In this situation, the court was faced with the task of how to classify the actions of Ukrainian pilots.” “The Russian court opted to deny the pilots’ affiliation with the armed forces in the broad sense of the term and instead classified their actions as terrorist activity,” says Andriy Yakovlev. “While the crime of terrorism lacks a universal definition, it is generally understood to involve intimidation as a means to an end and selective targeting. The target of an attack matters not in itself, but as a tool to exert influence on society – the real intended recipient of a terrorist attack. However, pilots Morozov and Shymanskyi, based on Alexander’s statement, carried out an order to strike a military target as part of achieving military advantage. The Russian court failed to factor in these circumstances. In effect, Morozov and Shymanskyi were convicted simply for resisting occupation.”
After the verdict of the Russian court, Inna Morozova is even more worried about her husband’s fate. He is almost seventy, and she doesn’t know how much longer he can endure behind bars. “What matters to my husband is that Ukraine requests his exchange and brings him home as soon as possible. But over there, in Moscow, the investigators and prosecutors keep telling him that his homeland isn’t asking for him,” she adds.
Supported by a grant from Open Society Foundations.
