"Mum, I was brutally raped": story of four residents of occupied Nova Kakhovka who were "sentenced" in Russian Federation
A Russian court has sentenced four residents of occupied Nova Kakhovka to prison terms of between 13 and 14 years for "aiding terrorism".
This is reported in an article by "Mediazona", according to Censor.NET.
What is known?
The individuals in question are Nataliia Kozhemiatska, Kostiantyn Semeniuk, Anastasiia Bernatska and Pavlo Peleshuk.
Kozhemiatska
On 17 May 2024, whilst on her way to work, Natalia Kozhemyatska, a 45-year-old tobacconist, was approached by unknown men. Contact with her was lost for several hours, and in the evening the same men brought her home to her mother.
"Natasha was very frightened; she couldn’t speak," says her sister Tetyana. "The only thing she told Mum was that they’d tortured her with electric shocks and forced her to confess to something, but she didn’t even understand what exactly."
According to Tetiana, that evening her sister stayed at home and "believed she wouldn’t be detained again, as she hadn’t done anything wrong". However, shortly before midnight, the officers came for Natalia again.
- "They told her: ‘Get ready, you’re staying with us for a long time’," she recalls.
Kozhemiatska was taken to the basement of the former Nova Kakhovka police headquarters. She spent the next six and a half months in this and other secret prisons, her sister explains. It was there that Natalia finally learnt what she was accused of.
A week before her abduction, a car belonging to Maksym Karyi – a local police officer whom the occupying authorities had appointed "chief security specialist of the Nova Kakhovka military-civilian administration" – had exploded in the city.
Karyi was unharmed because he detected the device and called the bomb disposal experts.
During the defusing operation, the device detonated – FSB bomb disposal expert Mikhail Sverdlikov sustained serious injuries, from which he died that same day. The car was burnt out.
On 10 May 2024, the inter-district department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation in Nova Kakhovka opened criminal proceedings on charges of attempted murder and an attack on the life of a law enforcement officer. Ten months later, the case was reclassified under a more serious charge – aiding and abetting terrorism.
Details of the case
At the same time, FSB operatives detained her boyfriend, 27-year-old electronics shop assistant Kostiantyn Semeniuk, and her neighbour, 31-year-old labourer Pavlo Peleshuk. The following day, 18 May, Peleshuk’s common-law wife – 25-year-old pharmacist Anastasia Bernatska – was added to the list of suspects.
However, the case files indicate completely different dates for their arrests. According to the investigation, Kozhemiatska was arrested on 5 November 2024, and her accomplices on 25 November.
The occupying authorities claim that they were "supporters of pro-Ukrainian views" and allegedly helped to plan Karyi’s murder in order to "stir up mistrust" towards the occupying authorities, portray them as helpless and thus persuade Russia to end the war.
The prosecution alleges that Bernatska, "on a date not established by the investigation" in July–August 2022, began exchanging messages on Telegram with a user going by the nickname "Roy", who, according to the investigation, was linked to Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (DIU).
Speaking in court, Nataliia Kozhemiatska admitted that in March 2024, Bernatska introduced her to "Roy". Kozhemiatska did not know who he was, but "it was possible to guess that he worked for the Ukrainian security services".
Bernatska said that "Roy" was "a trustworthy person who could help" Kozhemiatska: to ensure that her 21-year-old son was not sent to the front line. He has been serving in the Ukrainian Armed Forces since 2021.
Kozhemiatska explained that she had passed on her 21-year-old son’s details and a photo to "Roy", hoping that he would help prevent him from being sent to the front line. Instead, "Roy" asked her to find out the make, registration number and address of Karyi’s car, as well as to discover which office within the military-civilian administration he worked in. The woman claimed she was unaware of any specific plans, although, in her words, "one could guess that they wanted to eliminate him".
In addition, she sought further details about Karyi’s car from an acquaintance, Kostiantyn Semeniuk, and checked the address where he might have been parking it. Following the explosion on 10 May, Kozhemiatska photographed the burnt-out car at ‘Roy’s’ request and agreed to the photo being published on a Telegram channel.
The woman partially admitted her guilt, stating that she did not want anyone to die and regretted the death of the FSB bomb disposal expert. The judge, however, stated that he regarded her words as a full admission of guilt.
Rape
"I was electrocuted, beaten on the head and forced to have sexual intercourse without my consent," Kozhemiatska said at the hearing on 10 June.
Natalia managed to whisper to her mother that she had been raped during their first visit in six and a half months of captivity. In November 2024, FSB officers allowed them a brief meeting at a police station in the village of Novotroitske in the Kherson region.
"They were only given a few minutes," says Tetiana, Natalia’s sister. "As she was leaving, she hugged Mum so tightly and whispered: ‘Mum, I was raped very violently.’ Mum then told me: ‘Tania, she’s all black.’ It was clear that things were very difficult for Natasha there."
She was only allowed to see her mother after she had signed a confession, Kozhemiatska told the court.
In October 2025, 66-year-old Anna Bindiukova – Natalia’s mother – was returning with relatives to occupied Nova Kakhovka from her nephew’s funeral when a drone struck their car. The impact hit the side where the pensioner was sitting. She died at the scene.
Neither of her two daughters was able to attend the funeral. After the full-scale war began, Tetiana evacuated with her children to the Kyiv region, whilst Natalia was taken away by Russian security forces.
Pavlo Peleshuk
According to his sister Yulia, Pavlo Peleshuk was working at a building materials factory when the full-scale war began. His girlfriend, Anastasia Bernatska, was a pharmacist at a chemist’s. In letters to her family, she writes that in 2023 she completed her internship at Zaporizhzhia State Medical University.
The young couple had no plans to leave their home town due to the occupation.
Peleshuk explained that he had met ‘Roy’ through the PRO-Tavriisk Telegram channel, where he was looking for a part-time job. When the channel asked someone to find out where Karyi’s car was parked, he volunteered, as he had seen the vehicle in town.
On 17 May 2024, he was detained. According to Peleshuk, security forces beat him and subjected him to electric shocks for several days, forcing him to confess to involvement in planning the bombing. In court, he stated that he knew neither "Roy" nor of any plans to blow up the car, and that he had given his previous testimony under pressure from the investigator.
His sister Yulia said that for half a year after his arrest, the family had had no contact whatsoever with Pavlo or his girlfriend, Anastasia Bernatska. She said that, as a result of the torture, her brother is missing two front teeth, and that his molars were also extracted whilst he was in the remand centre in Rostov-on-Don.
Kostiantyn Semeniuk
Kostiantyn Semeniuk admitted in court that he had given Kozhemiatska Karyi’s car registration number and make, but claimed he was unaware that this information was being used to plan a terrorist attack.
According to Semeniuk, he only learnt about the explosion of Karyi’s car the following day from an acquaintance who worked for the occupying military-civilian administration.
Sentences
On 12 November, the Southern District Military Court ‘sentenced’ Nataliia Kozhemiatska to 14 years, Anastasiia Bernatska to 13 years and 4 months, Pavlo Peleshuk to 13 years, and Kostiantyn Semeniuk to 14 years in a penal colony.
