In mid-April 2024, Vasiliy Romanishyn was sentenced to 15 years in prison – a “traitor who spied for the FSB in Mykolaiv.” According to the prosecution, Romanyshyn attempted to locate the geographical coordinates of fortified areas and firing positions of Ukrainian Armed Forces units defending Mykolaiv, enabling the Russian Armed Forces to plan targeted attacks on the city using kamikaze drones. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) detained Vasyl in mid-February 2023, allegedly while attempting to transmit intelligence to the enemy.
However, the story is, as usual, more complex. In 2007, Vasiliy Romanishyn suffered a severe concussion and underwent treatment. In 2018, this was followed by a head injury in a car accident, after which he began experiencing mental health issues. He raised pigs on a subsidiary farm in Vradiivka, Mykolaiv Oblast, took tranquilizers, but did not seek medical help. He also became interested in esotericism.
Then, in early February 2023, the SBU discovered his “like” from October 7, 2022, under a post by the “Empire of the Strongest Witches” organization on the VKontakte social network. The post was titled “Ritual by Alena Polin in support of Russian President Vladimir Putin on his birthday.”
The text of the post read:
“A Witch’s ritual in support of the President of Russia on his birthday. Light a red non-church candle and read: ‘May the Power of Russia shine, may Putin be strong in his decisions. Strong, and may Russia be protected from evil. May our words be a protection for Russia. May Russia be glorified as a Great Power, may Putin glorify and uplift Russia. Protected from evil by our words. I conjure!’ Read 9 times.”
Subsequently, posts by Romanishyn himself were found – specifically, two comments from the summer and autumn of 2022 in the VK communities “Ukraine. Latest news. Exposing Ukraine” and “Russia is a great country.” In the first comment, he wrote that Russian had always been spoken in southern Ukraine, that Ukrainian was being forcibly imposed, and that nationalist battalions were created to terrorize the population. In the second, he congratulated Putin on his birthday and asked for Mykolaiv Oblast to be annexed by Russia.
Initially, the SBU deemed this unworthy of their attention and transferred the data to the police, who charged Romanishyn under Part 2 of Article 436-2 of the Criminal Code (justification of Russian aggression) – punishable by up to 8 years imprisonment. On February 4, 2023, for a single “like” and two comments, the court sent Vasyl to pre-trial detention with the possibility of bail set at 217,000 hryvnias. He did not have this amount.
The police began investigating the case and on February 15 returned it to the SBU, whose press service suddenly announced the detention of an “FSB agent who leaked information about Mykolaiv’s defenses to the enemy.” The charge of high treason (Article 111 of the Criminal Code), carrying a sentence of 15 years to life imprisonment, was added.
Romanishyn allegedly leaked intelligence, according to the investigation, to the “Empire of the Strongest Witches” organization, from whose group he reposted the ritual for Putin’s health. The “Empire” was founded in 2015 by Muscovite Elena Sulikova (pseudonym Alena Polin), who claimed to have inherited her witchcraft abilities from her grandmother, a healer. In 2013, she rose to fame after appearing on a television show and, capitalizing on her popularity, built a business conducting fertility rituals using photographs, teaching practical witchcraft, and selling voodoo dolls. This wouldn’t be noteworthy, but in 2019, realizing that she could earn even more from patriotism, Alena held a “witchcraft gathering” in Moscow to “boost Putin’s rating” and began lobbying for the legislative legalization of the work of “sorcerers and magicians” in Russia with the State Duma. The tabloid press immediately dubbed her “Putin’s favorite witch.”
This was enough for the SBU. Investigators established that Romanishyn underwent a witch’s initiation, which involved a test of commitment to the “ideas of creating Novorossiya,” began calling himself a “wizard,” and from March 15 to 22 gathered data “on the location of defense forces, checkpoints, and critical infrastructure facilities in Mykolaiv Oblast.” This is according to SBU channels. In reality, a search of Romanyshyn’s computer revealed maps of Vradiivka, where his and his elderly mother’s houses were marked as “friendly,” and the school was marked as “military.” That’s all. One might add that witnesses present during the search testified in court that Russian music was playing and Russian television channels were being broadcast when they entered the defendant’s house.
Romanishyn sent the map not even to the “Putin witches,” who allegedly organized an entire recruitment network, but to a certain “Russian blogger working for the FSB” on VK. How they knew who the blogger worked for remains unknown. The prosecution couldn’t even establish his identity; the indictment states: “Unidentified person – a citizen of Russia.” Only in court did Romanyshyn himself reveal that the blogger was Mikhail Onufrienko. More importantly, Onufrienko never received the sent map.
“The investigation also acknowledges that the message he sent was never received,” says Romanishyn’s lawyer, Ruslan Pilyuk.
Romanishyn’s testimony is of little interest. He doesn’t believe he committed treason, as he didn’t gather any information, never left his yard (most likely true, as the case files contain no mention of Vasyl’s trips or excursions to gather data), raised pigs, and everything he marked on the map was fabricated. The latter is also quite plausible – the investigation didn’t even try (as is common in other cases) to verify whether Ukrainian Armed Forces units were actually stationed at the indicated school. Romanishyn confirmed that he was a member of the “witch” organization with the status of “wizard” and bought candles, tarot cards, etc. there, trusting the organization “in a magical sense,” but did not participate in political activities. Regarding Onufrienko, he allegedly sent the map with the fabricated data to prove his loyalty and ensure his safety in case the Russians captured Vradiivka. But, as it turned out, he received no response.
Unlike the SBU press releases, the case files contain no mention of planning an attack with kamikaze drones.
Regarding the posts about annexing Mykolaiv Oblast to Russia, Vasiliy clarified that he would like this to happen without war. He opposes everyone who fights, opposes war, but never swore an oath to Ukraine. He doesn’t have hallucinations, only visions, “when he drinks at the cemetery.”
Naturally, the lawyer insisted that his client was not quite right in the head.
“Every village has someone called the ‘village idiot.’ And this village idiot considered himself a great wizard. He had voodoo dolls and all that at home”, the lawyer explained, describing the defendant’s mental state.
But Romanishin had no medical diagnosis, so the court disregarded all of this.
In short, a mentally unwell person “liked” a post by “witches” containing a spell about Putin’s health, wrote two comments criticizing nationalism and calling for the annexation of the Mykolaiv region to the Russian Federation, and sent a map with useless information to a Russian blogger’s chat — information that was never received. No one was harmed by the defendant’s actions. However, in April 2024, Romanishin was found guilty of justifying Russian aggression, encroaching on Ukraine’s territorial integrity, and treason. The sentence: 15 years imprisonment with confiscation of all property.
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