Babenko Aleksey Nikolaevich (Babenko Oleksiy Mikolayovich)

On March 1, 2022, a 31-year-old citizen of Ukraine, a resident of Lviv, Oleksiy Babenko, was kidnapped in the Luhansk region in its part occupied at that time. He was trying to get to his hometown to get his relatives out of the part of the "LNR" under the control of Russia. A criminal case of high treason was opened against him under the article of the criminal code of the "LNR".

According to the investigation, Alexei Babenko in December 2016 in the territory of Stanichno-Lugansk district on a voluntary basis was recruited by an employee of the Security Service of Ukraine. He was assigned the pseudonym "Dota 2". Later, in May 2017 in Lisichansk, the man also began to cooperate with the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine under the pseudonym "Renin". The law enforcers claim that the figure maintained contact with the curators through personal meetings and messengers to transfer information to the detriment of the security of the Luhansk People's Republic.

From March 2 to April 8, 2022, Oleksiy Babenko was under preventive detention, after which he was taken into custody.

On September 29, 2022, the Supreme Court of the Lugansk People's Republic found Oleksiy Babenko guilty and sentenced him to 12 years of imprisonment in a strict regime colony. There is no information about appealing the verdict.

On September 29, 2022, the Supreme Court of the Lugansk People's Republic (judges S.A. Chebotaryov, R.S. Tverdokhleb and L.V. Shumchenko) found Alexey Babenko guilty and sentenced him to 12 years of imprisonment in a strict regime colony.

On November 25, 2024, after the so-called "referendum", despite Babenko's lack of Russian citizenship, the Supreme Court of the Lugansk People's Republic (Judge S.A. Chebotaryov) reclassified the act to the article on high treason of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, leaving the sentence unchanged - 12 years of imprisonment in a strict regime colony, since the man had a propiska in Molodogvardeysk, which had been under Russian occupation since April 2014.

On March 13, 2025, the First Court of Appeal of General Jurisdiction (Judge S.V. Kurokhtin) considered the appeal against the ruling to reclassify the case and left the decision unchanged. The court rejected the arguments of the defendant in the case that at the time of the alleged events he was a citizen of Ukraine and could not have committed treason against Russia. The sentence entered into legal force on October 18, 2022.