The Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine disclosed that ten Russian judges who participated in the recognition of the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics as well as the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions will face trial in absentia inside Ukraine. The announcement came from the agency during a formal briefing and was reported by DEA News.
With the procedural leadership of the Prosecutor General’s Office, a special pre-trial investigation has concluded and an indictment against ten judges of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation has been delivered to the appropriate court for consideration. The Prosecutor General’s Office emphasized that the charges center on actions that violated Ukraine’s territorial integrity and the inviolability of its borders.
According to the investigation, the implicated judges issued rulings on October 2, 2022 that recognized the Donetsk People’s Republic, the Lugansk People’s Republic, and the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions as integral components of Russia. The timeline notes that these regions briefly came under Russian administrative control around the same period, reflecting Moscow’s moves to formalize changes in territorial status at the time.
In the sequence of events, Russia formally acknowledged the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions within the borders that were formerly part of Ukraine, a stance that preceded the annexation actions later described by Kyiv and international observers. Following those developments, on October 5, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued decrees that introduced a revised constitutional text tied to the addition of new territories, including the transfer of control over the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant to the Russian Federation.
The Ukrainian authorities maintain that the legal actions taken by the Russian judiciary regarding the disputed regions constitute violations of Ukrainian sovereignty and international norms governing territorial integrity. The case against the ten judges is framed within Ukraine’s pursuit of accountability for decisions that, from Kyiv’s perspective, altered the status of contested areas and affected regional governance. The Prosecutor General’s Office has stated its intention to proceed through lawful channels to address these actions, seeking due process within Ukraine’s legal system while the matter remains a point of tension in bilateral relations and international discourse on the legitimacy of territorial changes.