{"id":88415,"date":"2026-05-29T14:40:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T11:40:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ppu.gov.ua\/?post_type=press-center&#038;p=88415"},"modified":"2026-05-29T17:03:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T14:03:25","slug":"the-face-of-resistance-the-story-of-crimean-political-prisoner-volodymyr-maladyka","status":"publish","type":"press-center","link":"https:\/\/ppu.gov.ua\/en\/press-center\/the-face-of-resistance-the-story-of-crimean-political-prisoner-volodymyr-maladyka\/","title":{"rendered":"The Face of Resistance: The Story of Crimean Political Prisoner Volodymyr Maladyka"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Life before the detention<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Volodymyr Maladyka was born on July 8, 1963, in the city of Yenakiieve, Donetsk region, into a miner&#8217;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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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&#8217;s Witnesses organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Persecution<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On October 1, 2020, Russian security forces conducted mass searches of believers&#8217; homes in Sevastopol. That same day, the occupiers initiated a criminal case against Volodymyr Maladyka, accusing him of &#8220;organizing the activities of an extremist organization&#8221;\u2014specifically for participating in the Jehovah&#8217;s Witnesses organization, which Russia banned in 2017. Following the temporary occupation of Ukrainian territories, Russia illegally extended its jurisdiction over them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The charges against Maladyka were based on video recordings of four worship services secretly filmed by FSB agents. During the search of Volodymyr&#8217;s home, FSB officers seized a bag of powdered milk, suspecting the family of possessing narcotics. Later, forensics confirmed it was ordinary powdered milk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Behind the bars<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":88414,"template":"","publication-type":[],"class_list":["post-88415","press-center","type-press-center","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Face of Resistance: The Story of Crimean Political Prisoner Volodymyr Maladyka - Mission of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ppu.gov.ua\/en\/press-center\/the-face-of-resistance-the-story-of-crimean-political-prisoner-volodymyr-maladyka\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Face of Resistance: The Story of Crimean Political Prisoner Volodymyr Maladyka - Mission of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Life before the detention Volodymyr Maladyka was born on July 8, 1963, in the city of Yenakiieve, Donetsk region, into a miner&#8217;s family. 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