Nesterenko Artur Igorevich (Nesterenko Artur Igorovich)

In Melitopol, in the occupied Zaporizhzhia region, in September 2022 (exact date unknown), two local residents were detained - 24-year-old Roman Zarubaev and 27-year-old Arthur Nesterenko. They were accused of participating in a 'terrorist community,' illegal circulation of explosives, manufacturing explosive devices, committing a 'terrorist act,' and Nesterenko was also accused of illegal possession of weapons and ammunition. According to Russian investigators, in September 2022, employees of the GUR of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, using the call signs Foxy, Mara, and Hunter, organized a terrorist community with the aim of carrying out terrorist acts in the city of Melitopol, Zaporizhzhia region. Organizers recruited Roman Zarubaev through correspondence in Telegram. In turn, he involved his acquaintance, Arthur Nesterenko, in the community. Both were opponents of the annexation of the Zaporizhzhia region to the Russian Federation. GUUR employees promised to pay the defendants and then arrange their relocation to Ukraine. They "received information about caches with explosive devices from community leaders through messengers, and also, on orders, installed and detonated these devices." 1. In particular, Zarubaev and Nesterenko were accused of installing and detonating an explosive device on September 6, 2022, at the gates of the house of a member of the precinct commission for the referendum on the entry of the Zaporizhzhia region into Russia. Also, Zarubaev was accused of detonating an explosive device the next day, September 7, 2022, near the building of city school No. 15, where a polling station for voting in the referendum was located. Both terrorist attacks did not result in casualties or major destruction, and therefore, as the defendants allegedly later claimed, 'the customers from the GUR were extremely dissatisfied with them.' Melitopol residents were offered to make amends by planting a third bomb, but the device detonated when they came for it. As a result, the defendants in the case received minor injuries and concussions. During a search of the defendants' residences, explosives, including hexogen, as well as a grenade were allegedly found. Following their detention, they were sent to a pre-trial detention center. August 20, 2024, the Southern Military District Court returned the criminal case to the prosecutor's office. The court stated that Zarubaev and Nesterenko carried out explosions in the Zaporizhzhia region before the referendum on joining Russia, and therefore their actions "fall under the article on terrorism outside the territory of Russia, which provides for stricter liability. The charges against the defendants were toughened, reclassifying them under the article on 'an act of international terrorism'.