Odesa court sentences resident of Malodolynske to five years for disclosing military unit location

Sentence for transmitting military coordinates

Chornomorsk City Court in Odesa region sentenced a local resident of Malodolynske village to five years of imprisonment on 4 November 2026. The man was found guilty of disseminating information on the location of a unit of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

How the conversation took place

According to case materials, in early May 2025, the defendant independently identified a temporary location of a military unit. On 8 May, during a phone call, he passed this information to his interlocutor.

The court noted that during the conversation, the parties avoided direct names of the object. Instead, they used euphemisms: “дітки”, “діти” and “справжні діти” (little ones, children, and real children). According to the court, such vocabulary served as a way to distinguish military personnel from civilian children. The conversation also mentioned the need to monitor another area and discussed whether the object was being used for its intended purpose.

Defence version and court position

The defendant did not admit his guilt. He claimed that the conversation concerned the search for a location for children's sports camps, and the term “діти” (children) referred to pupils of various ages. The man also emphasised that the military deployment site was common knowledge for the villagers.

The court rejected these explanations as illogical and contradictory. The evidentiary base included recordings of phone conversations, results of covert investigative actions, and witness testimony. The latter stated that the defendant's interlocutor had an interest in gathering information about military objects.

Qualification and punishment

The court did not establish that the man intended to cause harm to Ukraine's defence capability, but recognised that he consciously allowed for the possibility of such consequences. His actions were qualified under Part 2 of Article 114-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine — unauthorised dissemination of information on the location of the Armed Forces of Ukraine during martial law.

The period of previous detention from 31 July 2025 to 9 September 2026 was credited towards the sentence (day-for-day principle). After being released on bail in the amount of 266,240 hryvnia, the man was at liberty with restrictions: he was required to wear an electronic monitoring device and not leave the territory of the community without court permission.

Once the verdict enters into legal force, the convicted person is to be detained and taken into custody to serve the sentence. The court ordered the confiscation of the Blackview phone used by the defendant as an instrument of the crime, as well as the recovery of 2,674 hryvnia in court costs from him.