Eskender Kudusov is a Crimean Tatar, a Ukrainian serviceman, and a Senior Warrant Officer of the Armed Forces of Ukraine who has dedicated more than twenty years of his life to serving the Ukrainian people and the Ukrainian state. A man who remained loyal to his oath in the most difficult times, he chose to fight for freedom, and today he remains in Russian captivity, illegally sentenced by occupation authorities to nearly thirty years in prison.
Eskender was born in Uzbekistan to a family of Crimean Tatars deported by the Soviet regime. After his family returned from exile, he began his military service at the age of 18 in Zaporizhzhia. He served with the Ukrainian peacekeeping contingent in Iraq and Kosovo. Before the Russian occupation of Crimea, he continued his service in the Marine Corps in Feodosiia.
In 2014, he was among those servicemen who did not betray Ukraine or their oath to the Ukrainian people. Eskender Kudusov refused to side with the occupiers and, together with his unit, continued his service in Mykolaiv.
When Russia launched its full-scale invasion, Eskender was stationed in Mariupol, Donetsk region. On 12 April 2022, Ukrainian troops attempted to break through the encirclement by Russian forces. Many service members were captured. Eskender, along with four others, voluntarily set out on foot for 26 kilometers, hoping to escape on their own — but on 16 April, they were captured.
Instead of adhering to the norms of international humanitarian law, Russia began persecuting the Ukrainian serviceman. A criminal case was unlawfully initiated against Eskender, and in 2023, a so-called “court of the DPR” sentenced him to 25 years in prison. In 2024, the sentence was increased to 29 years and 6 months. The verdict was issued in gross violation of the Geneva Conventions, which explicitly prohibit the trial of prisoners of war by quasi-judicial bodies of the occupying regime.
Today, Eskender Kudusov is held in a high-security penal colony No. 8 in the city of Khrestivka (formerly Kirovske) in the temporarily occupied part of the Donetsk region. His current condition and the conditions of detention remain unknown.
The Kremlin persecutes Ukrainian service members from Crimea with particular cruelty. For Moscow, they represent dangerous proof of the truth. Their loyalty to Ukraine and service in the Defense Forces alongside the entire nation completely dismantle the Russian propaganda myth that “Crimea allegedly wanted to join Russia.” That is why the occupation regime holds show “trials” of Crimean Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars, attempting to intimidate others and erase any evidence of resistance. It is important to emphasize that such “verdicts” have no legitimacy and violate international law. They are yet another manifestation of the criminal nature of the Russian occupation and its attempts to suppress the will to freedom.
Eskender’s story is a further example of how the Russian regime wages a war of aggression aimed at destroying both the Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar peoples.
Ukraine continues to fight for each of its citizens held in Russian captivity and calls on the international community to facilitate the exchange of prisoners of war. We await Eskender Kudusov’s release and his swift return home.