Former 155th Brigade commander remanded in custody for 60 days over murder of two civilians: Details from courtroom

Luchanov pleaded not guilty at the start of the hearing.

When asked whether he had ordered the abduction of the Moseychuk brothers, he denied it, claiming he was on leave at the time of the crime and could not have issued such orders.

Prosecutor Serhiy Mirzoyan detailed the allegations: Luchanov allegedly recruited eight subordinates — Ruslan Dmytruk, Andriy Zayets, Oleksandr Pertsula, Vyacheslav Artamonov, Bohdan Shurko, Maksym Mykytenko, Roman Kozak, and Serhiy Kolomiyets — to carry out the kidnapping.

On July 27, the servicemen arrived at the brothers’ home in Kalynivka village, broke into the property, used physical force, tied them up, blindfolded them, and forced them into vehicles. The brothers were then taken to military unit A5001 near Poltava and held illegally until July 1.

According to the investigation, Luchanov later decided to kill the brothers to cover up the abduction and enlisted battalion commander Oleksiy Dolholenko.

Dolholenko allegedly took them to a training ground near Poltava, shot them, and buried the bodies.

What does defense say?

Luchanov’s lawyer, Denys Lysov, said that during interrogations, seven of the suspects did not mention Luchanov’s name, while the eighth, Shurko, refused to testify.

The lawyer claims that the group was led by Shurko (the brigade's chief sergeant), not Luchanov. At the same time, the motion to charge Dolholenko, who is accused of killing the brothers, states that he committed these actions on Luchanov's orders. However, the defense noted that there is no interrogation report.

The lawyer also, referring to the case materials, noted that several people recognized another person — Vyacheslav Artamonov, who "introduced himself as the commander of the 155th brigade, according to the interrogations of those people."

The lawyer also says that there is a contradiction between "giving orders" and "acting in accordance with prior conspiracy."

"The issue of a knowingly illegal order somewhat does not really correlate with the issue of prior conspiracy, which I do not understand. Did they have prior conspiracy, or was it an order they were carrying out?" Lysov added.

Background

In early July, hromadske sources in the Defense Forces and law enforcement agencies reported that nine soldiers of the 155th Mechanized Brigade were detained on suspicion of kidnapping two civilian men from Kyiv Oblast, and the brigade commander, Stanislav Luchanov, was declared wanted. Later, Operational Command "South" confirmed that Luchanov had left the military unit without authorization.

On July 13, law enforcement officers detained Luchanov in Kyiv. He became the tenth suspect in the case of the kidnapping of the Moseychuk brothers. The court chose pre-trial restrictions in the form of detention for 60 days for the nine other defendants.

hromadske traveled to the village of Kalynivka, in Kyiv Oblast, where the tragedy actually occurred. Relatives and friends of the Moseychuks told what caused the Luchanov family to conflict with their neighbors and what started the conflict. More details in the report.