Oleksandr Semenov — Skelia

Date 27.01.2026

Source note: official statements, media reports, eyewitness accounts, and social media claims are presented as claims by the respective sources. They are not treated as established facts without independent confirmation, forensic documents, or a court ruling.

35-year-old Oleksandr Semenov of Kropyvnytskyi died in hospital on 27 January 2026. Babel gives pneumonia as the official cause. His mother and a doctors' video describe a beating in Skelia.

Chronology

  • His mother Svitlana Khrystus says that in 2022 and 2024 he asked to join the army himself, but was refused because he was on opioid substitution therapy.
  • 10.01.2026 — after a medical board found him fit, Semenov was taken to Skelia.
  • 23.01.2026 — he arrived beaten at a Kropyvnytskyi hospital. Local doctors recorded a video. He died a few days later. Babel's roster dates the death 27 January and gives pneumonia.

Accounts

Mother

Svitlana Khrystus told Babel:

"I waited for him outside the recruitment center myself and packed his things."

These words are recorded in Babel's investigation.

Oleksandr's words on the doctors' video

On the 23 January video he said:

"They beat you, tie you to an ATV and drag you along the ground until you are worn away."

He also named Maksym Skipa among those who, he said, hanged himself on a bulletproof vest, and said that nine people died by suicide in four days. Tetiana Hurenko, head of the substitution-therapy ward, retold Babel his off-camera words: "I never thought I could soil myself. They beat me that hard."

Regiment

Babel writes that the regiment confirmed the deaths on the roster. The article names pneumonia as the official cause of Semenov's death.

Sources