They were tried by a military court in Rostov, Russia, so they are being treated as prisoners of war. But the eight men — a mix of Russian, Ukrainian and Armenian citizens — were civilians involved in the transport of a shipment of cargo by truck in October of 2022 when it exploded as the vehicle crossed the Russian-built Crimean Bridge that connects the Russian mainland with Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula across the Kerch Strait.

The accused — Artyom and Georgy Azatyan, Oleg Antipov, Aleksandr Bylin, Vladimir Zloba, Dmitry Tyazhelykh, Roman Solomko, and Artur Terchanyan — were charged with carrying out a terrorist attack and illegal arms trafficking. Solomko and Terchanya were also accused of smuggling explosives. Five others — three Ukrainian and two Georgian nationals, were charged in absentia. [Associated Press, November 27, 2025.]

The eight defendants were non-combatants. The delivery was being made by Oleg Antipov’s logistics company, and consisted of rolls of plastic film; the explosives are said to have been hidden inside the rolls. Russian authorities said the shipment had traveled from Odesa through Bulgaria, Armenia and Georgia using falsified paperwork. [Moscow Times, November 27, 2025.]

Note: Geographically, that makes no sense whatsoever; it would be akin to traveling from Germany to Switzerland by way of Spain, Hungary and Romania.

Antipov himself went to the FSB — successor agency to the KGB — as soon as he learned of the explosion and was unable to reach the driver of his truck. He was interviewed and released, but was arrested some days later. [Associated Press, op.cit.]

Lt. Gen. Vasyl Maliuk, head of Ukraine’s SBU (Security Services), acknowledged in a 2023 interview that he and two others on his staff had prepared the attack, and stated they had used the civilians without their knowledge of the contents of the cargo. But the eight defendants were put on trial behind closed doors in February of this year, and have now been sentenced — each and every one of them — to life in prison.

A video published by independent media outlet Mediazona depicts Oleg Antipov addressing the courtroom after the verdict:

“We are innocent. We are innocent. We all passed — eight of us — we all passed the polygraphs. We all proved our innocence. We cooperated fully. We went to law enforcement ourselves and gave our testimony. Not a single person has testified against us. All the witnesses say we are innocent. All the evidence says we are innocent. All 116 volumes [of case files] say we are innocent. Show the people the truth.” [Id.]

But in Vladimir Putin’s world, someone must always be punished.

The human rights group Memorial has designated all eight men as political prisoners, saying that their cooperation with investigators indicates that they had no links to Ukrainian intelligence. So it is with the deepest sorrow that we add them to our hostage list this week, designated as the “Crimea 8.”

*. *. *

And on that note, here they all are once again: the political prisoners of the Putin regime and those of his allied states — all those known to me, and the thousands I don’t know about:

Prisoners of War:

The 19,500 Kidnapped Ukrainian Children
The People of Ukraine

Immigrant Detainees in Russia:

Migrants from the Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan

Endangered Exiles:

Mikita Losik
Yulia Navalnaya
Countless Journalists and Other Dissidents

Political Prisoners:

In Azerbaijan:

The “Azerbaijan 7”:
— Farid Mehralizada
— Ulvi Hasanli
— Sevinj Abbasova (Vagifqiai)
— Mahammad Kekalov
— Hafiz Babali
— Nargiz Absalamova
— Elnara Gasimova

In Belarus:

Ales Bialiatski
Andrei Chapiuk
Marya Kalesnikava
Uladzimir Labkovich
Andrzej Poczobut
Marfa Rabkova
Valiantsin Stafanovic
Yuras Zyankovich

In Georgia:

Mzia Amaglobeli

In China:

Chenyue Mao (American)

In Russia:

The “Crimea 8”:
— Oleg Antipov
— Artyom Azatyan
— Georgy Azatyan
— Aleksandr Bylin
— Roman Solomko
— Artur Terchanyan
— Dmitry Tyazhelykh
— Vladimir Zloba

David Barnes (American)
Gordon Black (American)
Antonina Favorskaya
Konstantin Gabov
Robert Gilman (American)
Stephen James Hubbard (American)
Sergey Karelin
Timur Kishukov
Vadim Kobzev
Darya Kozyreva
Artyom Kriger
Michael Travis Leake (American)
Aleksei Liptser
Grigory Melkonyants
Nika Novak
Leonid Pshenychnov (in Russian-occupied Crimea)
Nadezhda Rossinskaya (a.k.a. Nadin Geisler)
Sofiane Sehili (French)
Igor Sergunin
Dmitry Shatresov
Robert Shonov
Grigory Skvortsov
Eugene Spector (American)
Laurent Vinatier
Robert Romanov Woodland (American)

*. *. *

In this especially difficult season of “peace on Earth, good will toward men,” it is particularly important that you stay strong, and know that you are not forgotten.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
11/30/25