The murder of a member of the Odessa Jewish community, which was likely a contract killing, was committed by neo-Nazis, investigators believe.

The crime, committed late last year, was classified under a rare clause of the “murder” article of the Criminal Code—xenophobic, according to a ruling by the Kyiv District Court.

This is paragraph 14 of part two of Article 115: “intentional causing of death to another person, committed for reasons of national or religious intolerance.”

We are talking about the murder of 45-year-old head of the Rakhamim charitable foundation, Denis (Yeoshua) Trebenko, who was shot almost point-blank under the windows of his own home on Fontanskaya Road.

The suspect, a 19-year-old native of Kherson, had committed the crime and fled to other regions of Ukraine. He was arrested in August of this year.

Initially, police believed that the murder was ordered by people with a vested interest in Trebenko’s death: he had complex debt and loan relationships with his business partners.

Initially, police believed the murder was ordered by one of Trebenko’s business partners. He owed money to some, and others owed him money.

Subsequently, however, detectives came to a different conclusion: the suspect experienced “national and religious intolerance towards individuals of Jewish nationality who profess Judaism.”

His connection to the Russian neo-Nazi group National-Socialism / White Power (NS/WP, NS/WP Crew, also known as Sparrows Crew), which posted a video of Trebenko’s murder in January, has been preliminarily established.

A Kherson resident was detained in connection with another criminal case related to the arson of military vehicles in Mykolaiv.

The organizer of the murder, with whom the detainee shared a prison colony in the Kherson region, remains unaccounted for. During the occupation, the young men were transferred to Russia , from where they somehow managed to return to Ukraine.

In preparation for the murder, the perpetrator rented an apartment and stole a pistol and cell phones purchased by the organizer from a hiding place. He stalked his victim for nearly a month.

On December 9, 2025, the young man encountered Denis Trebenko on a playground near his home and shot him six times at point-blank range, literally riddling him with bullets. He then quickly left Odessa on a scheduled bus.

This entire story is likely part of a larger game by Russian intelligence agencies to destabilize the domestic political and social situation in Ukraine, according to Dumskaya’s legal columnist Alexander Ivanov:

“Of course, it’s also possible that the police, unable to find evidence of a contract killing, decided to fabricate an anti-Semitic motive, but that’s unlikely. Firstly, they have ironclad evidence against this particular man: the pistol used to shoot Trebenko was found on him. Secondly, this isn’t a police matter at all; the SBU handles that. And it’s unlikely the cops would have passed the buck. So, it seems likely that’s exactly what happened. But all this is still speculation. We’re waiting for the case to be heard on its merits.”

Interestingly, at the trial to extend his pretrial detention, the suspect did not object to remaining in pretrial detention without the possibility of being released on bail.

Denis Trebenko had a second-degree disability. He owed over $40,000 to an Odessa businesswoman, lost her case in court, and was at risk of losing his inherited apartment. Meanwhile, he tried to recover nearly $60,000 from his debtor’s heir. He lost the case at first instance, but the second instance ruled in his favor. However, he never received the money.

However, as law enforcement officials found out, he did not receive any threats from these people.

After the Odessa resident’s death, his creditors attempted to illegally seize his vacant apartment. But that’s another story.
DEATH TO THE RUSSIAN OCCUPIERS!

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