Dmitry Gnatenko

Resident of Luhansk region (Ukraine). On 21 April 2022, he was detained. Gnatenko was officially taken into custody on 19 May. A case of high treason was opened against him in the wording of the Criminal Code of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic: according to the investigation, he asked his wife to take pictures of Russian military equipment and send the photo to the bot "I found the occupier!". The defence pointed out that on 5 March 2022, when Gnatenko, according to the investigation, asked his wife to photograph the equipment, the LPR authorities had not been formed on the territory of the Belokuraki district, and therefore Gnatenko did not consider himself a citizen of this entity. The court countered that "until the issues of citizenship of the Luhansk People's Republic are determined by law, for the purposes of the LPR CPC and LPR CC, citizens of the Luhansk People's Republic are citizens of Ukraine whose place of residence as of 12 May 2014 was registered on the territory of the Luhansk People's Republic." On 29 September 2022, Gnatenko was sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment; on 18 December 2023, the place of punishment was determined to be a strict regime colony. On 9 September 2024, the sentence was brought in line with the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation without changing the punishment.