Five Years for ‘They Are Heroes’ and Fourteen for a 400-Rouble Transfer
Svetlana Nazarova, a resident of Vologda, was arrested on 5 August 2025 for a comment posted in the Telegram channel of the Siberian Battalion, a unit fighting alongside Ukraine. She had written: ‘You lads are the best! Not like Putin’s lot and the rest of that scum.’ For this, she received two years in a penal colony under Russia’s law criminalising the ‘justification of terrorism.’
Yevgenia Kumpan, from Kaliningrad Oblast, worked at a post office and was the sole carer for her paralysed mother. She was prosecuted over a single comment in a Ukrainian Telegram channel: beneath a post about drone manufacturing in Tatarstan, she had typed, ‘Blow the factories to hell.’ On 18 August 2025, she was convicted of ‘incitement to terrorism’ and taken into custody. On appeal, her sentence was fixed at three years and four months in a penal colony.
Konstantin Pashyan, a bank employee from Belgorod, commented beneath a post about Ukraine’s Azov regiment. He wrote three words: ‘They are heroes.’ In October 2025 he was placed under house arrest and later sentenced to five years in a penal colony for ‘justification of terrorism.’
Natalya Doroshchenko, an accountant from Irkutsk, posted comments speculating about who might kill Putin and how his death could affect the end of the war in Ukraine. On 27 June 2025, she was convicted of incitement to terrorism, its justification, and propaganda, and remanded in custody. On appeal, her sentence was confirmed at five years and five months in a penal colony.
Valentin Zemlyansky, Anton Yartsev and Aleksandr Shcheglov were arrested on criminal charges in June 2025. Nearly a year before their detention, Valentin Zemlyansky and Anton Yartsev had, on Aleksandr Shcheglov’s instructions, left business cards around a Moscow club: the cards carried the venue’s branding and a QR code linking to a fundraiser for the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Valentin Zemlyansky and Anton Yartsev insisted they had believed they were helping the security services expose pro-Ukrainian sympathisers among the club’s owners. Aleksandr Shcheglov stated he had acted for money. All three were convicted of publicly inciting activities deemed a threat to Russian state security and sentenced to between five and six years in a penal colony.
Aleksandr Sarbayev, from Komsomolsk-on-Amur, sent 400 roubles (less than €5) to a Ukrainian medical relief fund in February 2022. He was detained on 20 March 2025, held for ten days on a hooliganism charge before being re-arrested on treason charges. He was sentenced to fourteen years in a penal colony.
Yevgeny Vitushkin, from Chelyabinsk Oblast, was detained on 25 November 2025 and, following a cycle of repeated arrests, charged with treason over cryptocurrency transfers to Ukraine. The total sum transferred was under 10,000 roubles (less than €120).
Yevhen Khomenko, a Ukrainian-born former broadcast engineer for the RTRS television network living in Novosibirsk, was detained twice on administrative charges before facing treason proceedings over a transfer of 39,000 roubles (around €470) to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. On 18 December 2025, he was sentenced to thirteen years in a strict-regime penal colony.
Oksana Senezhuk lived and worked in Sevastopol, in the city administration before Russia’s annexation of Crimea, and afterwards at a research institute. On 14 August 2024, she was remanded in custody on a treason charge. The FSB alleged she had sent photographs of military vessels to a former colleague connected to Ukrainian military intelligence. She was sentenced to fifteen years in a penal colony.
Mykola Petrovsky, a lawyer and volunteer, and Serhiy Kotov, a driving instructor, both live in Kherson Oblast of Ukraine. In the spring of 2022, they were abducted by Russian occupation forces and held without charge for months. They were eventually tried for espionage, accused of passing Ukrainian security services information about Russian troop positions, allegedly gathered from open internet sources. Serhiy Kotov was sentenced to fifteen years, Mykola Petrovsky to sixteen.
Seven Ukrainian prisoners of war stand convicted of undergoing terrorist training and participating in a terrorist organisation, for no other reason than their service in the Azov regiment. Oleksiy Kudynov was sentenced to nineteen years, Ivan Stremoukhov to eighteen, Andriy Ostapchuk to seventeen, Vitaliy Zaluzhny to six. The sentences imposed on Oleh Shapovalenko, Ivan Poliakov and Oleksandr Sabadash remain unknown to us.
You can read more about these cases, including addresses for correspondence with political prisoners, in our full report.
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