Zaikin Sevastyan Vadimovich (Zayikin Sevastyan Vadimovich)

In Mariupol, occupied Donetsk region, no later than May 2022, a 22-year-old Ukrainian citizen, a fighter of the separate special purpose unit "Azov" of the 12th National Guard Brigade, Sevastyan Zaitsev, was taken prisoner by Russian military. He was accused of murder committed by an organized group on grounds of political and ideological hatred, as well as of cruel treatment of the civilian population. According to the Russian investigation, in March 2022, Zaikin, being on a combat position in an apartment in one of the apartment buildings on Metallurgov Avenue in Mariupol, saw an unarmed civilian man walking down the street, after which he made 15 aimed shots from a Kalashnikov machine gun. The victim died at the scene from his wounds. Zaykin himself claimed that he received an order to shoot at two "enemy soldiers" in civilian clothes from a distance of 300-400 meters without optics and that several fighters were firing. On December 3, 2025, the Supreme Court of the Donetsk People's Republic found Sevastyan Zaikin guilty and sentenced him to 22 years in a strict regime colony. The verdict was not appealed and entered into legal force.