Major of the Ukrainian Navy Stanislav Karachevskyi was killed 10 years ago, on April 6, 2014. He was shot dead by a Russian marine with an AK-74 rifle. Karachevskyi has become the second victim among the military personnel in Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Stanislav Karachevskyi graduated from the Black Sea Higher Naval School in Sevastopol. He was the leader of the operational department at the headquarters of the 10th naval aviation brigade in Novofedorivka, which was later renamed to the 10th naval aviation brigade named after Colonel Ihor Bedzai, a Hero of Ukraine.
Throughout the Russian occupation of the Crimean peninsula, Stanislav Karachevskyi remained steadfast in his adherence to the military oath and unwavering in his loyalty to his country. Until April 6, 2014, he assisted in the relocation of the brigade’s aircraft from Novofedorivka airfield to mainland Ukraine, completing the personnel transfer within a two-day timeframe as planned.
On April 6, in the evening, after loading their belongings, Major Karachevskyi and his colleague, Captain Yermolenko, returned home and passed the checkpoint of the airfield. The Russian occupiers attempted to detain them, but the Ukrainian servicemen turned in the other direction and walked towards the dormitory. Russian soldiers, armed with assault rifles, pursued Stanislav, who was unarmed, up to his room on the fifth floor of the dormitory, where Ukrainian officers’ families and children also resided. At that moment, they caught up with the Major: a Junior Sergeant from the Russian Navy fired at the Ukrainian Navy Major, striking him in the back and head with an AK-47 rifle. One bullet pierced his right lung, while another struck near his eye. Traces of blood from the scene of the shooting trailed down to the 3rd floor, suggesting an attempt to conceal the crime by hiding the body of the deceased.
The Russian Federal Security Service then had tried to cover up the murder, however Karachevskyi’s wife and comrades-in-arms managed to report the murder publicly. Major Karachevskyi was shot by a marine Junior Sergeant Yevhenii Zaitsev from Yakutiia. He signed a contract to serve in the Russian army in 2013.
Karachevsky’s comrade-in-arms, Captain Artem Yermolenko, was detained by Russian marines near the airfield checkpoint that day. The occupiers took off his clothes, tied him up and handed him over to the Russian special services. The Ukrainian serviceman had been interrogated by the Russian Federal Security Service and then by Officers of the Russian Investigative Committee, who mocked and beat him during the interrogation. Injured Captain Yermolenko had been illegally transported to Sevastopol, where he was forcibly held for a week on the territory of a Russian military unit before being released.
Following the death of her husband, Stanislav Karachevskyi, his wife embarked on a new path as a military servicewoman, joining the naval air brigade stationed in Mykolaiv, where her husband had served.
This case further underscores that Russia’s occupation of Crimea constitutes a military capture of the peninsula, with casualties among civilians and soldiers dating back to 2014. The ongoing occupation is marked by a pattern of persecution, abductions, torture, abuse, wrongful convictions, and murder.
We pay tribute to all those who have resisted and continue to resist in the occupied Crimea, and we urge the international community to maintain pressure on Russia across all available instruments to facilitate the de-occupation of Crimea.