Where the world sees a shared responsibility to protect, Russia sees an opportunity to punish. Those who devote their lives to protecting the planet should be celebrated—not imprisoned. Yet Russia chooses to silence them instead. One of them is Leonid Pshenichnov, a Ukrainian marine biologist and ocean researcher with over 40 years of experience.

Leonid began his Antarctic research in 1983 during a Soviet expedition to the Cosmonauts Sea. He was among the first to document pelagic aggregations of the rare icefish Chaenodraco wilsoni. Since then, he has participated in 21 scientific expeditions across the Atlantic, Indian, Pacific, and Southern Oceans, working aboard Soviet, Ukrainian, Australian, and German research vessels—including the renowned Polarstern.

From 1996 to 2025, he served as technical coordinator of Ukraine’s scientific observation program under the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). His work was recognized in CCAMLR’s official 40th-anniversary materials in 2021.

In September 2025, while visiting family in temporarily occupied Crimea, Leonid was arrested by Russian occupying forces in the city of Kerch. He is accused of “state treason” for continuing to work at a Ukrainian scientific institution and supporting marine protected areas in Antarctica—actions Russia now claims are a “threat to national security.”

Like many Ukrainians living in temporarily occupied territories, Leonid holds a Russian passport not by choice, but because he was forced to accept it under occupation—just to stay connected with his family. Now, that very passport is being used against him as a tool of repression.

This is not just an attack on one scientist. It is an attack on the very principles of scientific freedom, international cooperation, and environmental protection.

Leonid Pshenichnov isn’t a political person. He has always prioritized the study of Antarctic biodiversity, fish biology, and the responsible use of marine resources. A person who has always placed the interests of Antarctica, science, and ecology above politics. His research has deepened our understanding of the biodiversity of the Southern Ocean, the behavior of fish species, and the interactions between industrial fishing and marine ecosystems.

Yet once again, through its actions, the Kremlin proves that terror is not an exception—it is a method, a system, a deliberate policy aimed at erasing identities, silencing truth, and destroying everything that cannot be controlled.

The international community must come to terms with a harsh reality: Russia does not uphold universal values. Its actions reveal a singular drive—to assert imperial ambitions through the destruction of science, the erasure of national identities, and the disregard for personal freedoms and human life.