Popov Leonid Igorevich (Popov Leonid Igorovich)

In April 2023, in the occupied city of Melitopol, Zaporizhzhia region, 22-year-old local resident Leonid Popov with a mental disorder was abducted. In 2018, Leonid was diagnosed with undifferentiated schizophrenia. He could not study, walked with his eyes closed, stopped feeling smells and tastes, and spoke incoherently. At 22 years old, his child's development is such that he doesn't understand anything. For several months, nothing was known about Leonid, and in June 2023, Leonid's former cellmate contacted his parents. According to him, the young man is being held in the basement of the local commandant's office and is in serious condition. According to him, they were given water once every two or three days, were not fed every day and were beaten, and Leonid constantly lay down and was extremely emaciated. July 2023, Leonid was brought to the Melitopol hospital - he was emaciated (weighing 40 kg at a height of almost two meters) and barely aware of what was happening to him. Two weeks after being in the hospital, his father received a call from representatives of the occupying Investigative Committee, who said they were releasing his son "due to the absence of a crime" (even though at that time no charges had been officially brought against him). But when the father brought Leonid home from the hospital, soldiers arrived, put a bag over Leonid's head and took him away again. For more than a year there was no information about the young man. In August 2024, it became known that the FSB of Russia opened a criminal case against Leonid Popov on charges of espionage. The details of the charges are unknown. The court placed Leonid in the SIZO-1 detention center in Donetsk. March 19, 2025, the Zaporizhzhia Regional Court ruled to release Leonid Popov from liability and apply compulsory medical measures to him.