In March 2022, Vitaliy Kukol, a resident of the village of Kamyanka, Sumy region, remained in the community when the front was rapidly approaching the Trostyanets district. At a time when local authorities and law enforcement officers were evacuating, Kukol organized the mining of the road, helped with the evacuation of civilians, and passed intelligence to the Ukrainian military. He acted as best he could. In the absence of state support, he made homemade weapons. He kept them as a means of defense.
However, two years later, the state put the defense attorney on trial, not the criminal.
On May 15, 2025, the Konotop City District Court found Vitaliy Kukol guilty of illegal possession of homemade weapons and explosives (Part 1 of Article 263 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). Judge Oleksandr Ohienko sentenced him to three years in prison, releasing him on probation for 1 year.
Despite the fact that the court established:
- Weapons were manufactured and stored for one purpose only — defend the village from the Russian invasion.
- The weapons were not used against civilians, was not the instrument of the crime, but on the contrary - an instrument of resistance.
- There was no harm, threat, or even suspicion of its use for a crime.
- Moreover, it is a homemade muzzle-loading weapon, technically less dangerous than legal hunting, which is sold freely.
— Vitaliy Kukol's actions are qualified as a crime. And this is a warning signal.
Bar Association OK Legal, co-founders of Pravotvorets, took on the defense of Vitaliy. An appeal will be filed in the near future. The lawyers insist:
🔻 Kukol made weapons under conditions of de facto occupation, to defend his community;
🔻 The court partially recognized these circumstances, but interpreted the duration of martial law in a contradictory manner;
🔻 criminal prosecution in such cases is undermining confidence in the national resistance.
Kukol's case should be considered in a broader context. Law No. 263 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (illegal handling of weapons) does not take into account the conditions in which many Ukrainians in 2022 were forced to act without orders, without access to legal weapons. Vitaliy was no exception - he was a systemic part of the public resistance to the aggressor.
❗ The existence of a criminal penalty for possession of homemade weapons in wartime is a disgrace to the law enforcement and judicial system, not justice.
Decriminalization is the need of the hour
The response to such cases should be bill No. 11073, which provides for: the abolition of criminal liability for possession or manufacture of weapons without criminal intent; the transfer of such cases to the sphere of administrative law; the preservation of criminal liability only for actions with criminal intent.
However, the document has been blocked in the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Law Enforcement for over a year. Despite public support, there is no political will to admit that self-defense in wartime is not a crime.
We demand:
- overturning Kukol's sentence;
- decriminalization of peaceful possession and production of weapons without criminal intent;
- public audit of such cases.
