Life before the detention

Volodymyr Maladyka was born on July 8, 1963, in the city of Yenakiieve, Donetsk region, into a miner’s family. After graduating from school, he trained as a cook and later studied at a naval aviation technical school, specializing in the technical maintenance of aircraft and engines. Following his studies, he served as a technician in the village of Kacha near Sevastopol.

Volodymyr was passionate about cars and especially enjoyed bodywork welding. On one occasion, he independently assembled a functional car from an old GAZ-21 chassis and officially registered it. Relatives and acquaintances knew him as a talented mechanic and a kind, hospitable person who was always ready to help others. Volodymyr was also interested in religion and was a member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses organization.

Persecution

On October 1, 2020, Russian security forces conducted mass searches of believers’ homes in Sevastopol. That same day, the occupiers initiated a criminal case against Volodymyr Maladyka, accusing him of “organizing the activities of an extremist organization”—specifically for participating in the Jehovah’s Witnesses organization, which Russia banned in 2017. Following the temporary occupation of Ukrainian territories, Russia illegally extended its jurisdiction over them.

The charges against Maladyka were based on video recordings of four worship services secretly filmed by FSB agents. During the search of Volodymyr’s home, FSB officers seized a bag of powdered milk, suspecting the family of possessing narcotics. Later, forensics confirmed it was ordinary powdered milk.

In October 2022, an occupation so-called court in Sevastopol sentenced Volodymyr Maladyka to 6 years of imprisonment in a general-regime penal colony. The occupiers also banned him from engaging in educational activities, appearing in the media, or publishing materials on the internet for 7 years. Additionally, after his release, he was sentenced to a further year of restricted freedom.

Behind the bars

In December 2023, it became known that Volodymyr Maladyka had been moved from Crimea to Russia. He was sent to correctional colony No. 3 in the Tambov region of the Russian Federation.

Despite the persecution, months spent in a pre-trial detention center, and the unjust sentence, Volodymyr Maladyka remains a symbol of peaceful resistance to religious persecution in occupied Crimea. His story demonstrates how the Russian occupation administration uses the fight against so-called extremism as a tool to pressure people for their faith and beliefs.