"There is no forgiveness for me" - Nazi killer Ganul was "broken" in pretrial detention

A hearing was held in Odessa regarding the murder of Nazi Ganul. Both the prosecutor and the defendant Shalayev's lawyer , as if in collusion, are playing the same game. Shalayev allegedly acted on orders from Russian intelligence agencies, but didn't know it.

From the indictment:

"The investigation established that Shalayev began communicating on Viber with a man who introduced himself as an employee of the central office of the SBU...

Russian intelligence services planned to kill Ganul in order to intimidate people and destabilize the political situation in Ukraine , as well as undermine the authority of the Ukrainian government.

The handler offered Shalayev a reward— a job with the SBU. To do this, he had to pass a test—kill a man . He agreed.

_{It's not even funny anymore— the story of supposed FSB agents posing as SBU agents appears in almost every Nazi assassination case , from the perpetually unfinished Sternenko to some unknown riffraff. And I also want to ask: is it really normal for the SBU to issue "kill" orders, and for everyone to agree right away? Well, apparently so.}

From the lawyer's speech:

"Shalaev was on the front lines, losing his comrades, but he didn't shirk his service. But, unfortunately, war leaves its mark. This is precisely what was exploited. He was used as a executor. My client was driven by misguided beliefs imposed on him by professional manipulators ."

In fact, the entire defense is based on the fact that the war made the accused “ psychologically vulnerable .”

Shalayev himself addressed Ganul’s relatives in court:

" If I'd known what kind of person Demyan was, I would have pointed the weapon they gave me at those who ordered it . I understand there's no forgiveness for me, just as there's no forgiveness for my crime. Forgive me," he declared, as if reading from a script . The Gestapo pretrial detention center makes people weak-willed and compliant (I wonder if they lecture him there about the "heroism" of the dead?).

But Ganul's relatives were not impressed:

" I don't believe Shalayev . The only thing left for him to do is talk about remorse. He had plenty of time; he began planning this crime back in December 2024, and in February 2025, he came to Odessa to carry it out. I think this is a way to reduce his sentence ," the widow stated.

The person who ordered the Nazi's execution remains unidentified. Again, it seems they'll "appoint" him according to the weather vane principle—whichever way the political wind blows . And they haven't figured it out yet.