Organising the financing of terrorism over a single Telegram post, treason over serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine after mobilisation and extremism over teaching prayer
Read our overview of these and other cases of political prisoners we have recognised last week
Kirill Bessonov, a teacher-training university student from Kaluga Oblast, had his property searched in August 2024 over a comment in a Ukrainian chat. His electronic devices were seized, and he was driven out to a forest and beaten before being released. In January 2025, he was placed in a remand prison on charges of public justification of terrorism. He was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment over comments about attacks by the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Russian territory.
Sergei Nichiporuk, a Russian serviceman, was sentenced to five years in a penal colony and stripped of the rank of captain on charges of spreading military ‘fake news’. Investigators claimed that a post he published in August 2022 contained ‘knowingly false information about the actions of Russian Federation military personnel aimed at killing and using violence against the civilian population’.
Ilya Chubukov, a programmer from Belgorod, was detained in September 2023 on suspicion of setting fire to an outdoor structure in the shape of the letter ‘Z’. According to Chubukov, he was brutally tortured and the key to his dormitory room was taken from him. A grenade, a TNT block and a detonator were then ‘found’ in the room. Chubukov says they had been planted. The court sentenced him to six and a half years’ imprisonment on charges of vandalism and storing explosive devices and explosives.
Aleksandr Paisov, a postman from Zvenigorod, was charged with extremism and sentenced to two years in a penal colony in October 2026 for ‘carrying out illegal missionary activity […] expressed in teaching prayer to Jehovah God’.
Vyacheslav Vorobyov, a painter and decorator from Ulyanovsk, was placed in a remand prison in June 2026. He was charged with organising the financing of terrorism over a Telegram post calling on others to transfer money to a Ukrainian military unit that Russia has designated a terrorist organisation.
Three people are being prosecuted for financing terrorism over money transfers they made in support of blogger and politician Vyacheslav Maltsev, whom the authorities consider the leader of a terrorist organisation. Aleksandr Gudyushkin, a resident of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, was placed in a remand prison in May 2026 over several transfers made in 2021–2022. He has not yet been sentenced. Olga Rizz, a sales manager from Kostroma, was arrested in January 2026 and Aleksandr Kosterin, a Moscow resident who works at the Ilyushin Design Bureau, in May. Rizz transferred 8,500 roubles to Maltsev in total between 2022 and 2024, while Kosterin transferred 4,500. Yet both were sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment.
Natalya Malis, a resident of Biysk, was sentenced to 16 years’ imprisonment on charges of treason. The prosecution alleged that she had transferred more than 360,000 roubles to an account belonging to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Women from occupied Zaporizhzhia Oblast were also charged with treason for financing the Ukrainian army. Nataliia Nadieina, a pensioner, was sentenced to 12 years in a penal colony for transferring more than 60,000 roubles, and Svitlana Kramchanina to 14 years for transferring less than 3,000 roubles. Both live in Tokmak. Olena Chemereha from Berdiansk was also sentenced to 14 years for transferring 57,789 roubles.
Yurii Kudrevatykh, a Ukrainian citizen, lived in Crimea and acquired Russian citizenship after the occupation began. In 2019, he moved to Ukraine, where he was mobilised into the Armed Forces of Ukraine in 2024. A year later, he was taken prisoner by Russian forces. An occupation court sentenced him to 13 and a half years’ imprisonment on charges of treason, specifically defecting to the enemy.
Other Ukrainian servicemen taken prisoner by Russian forces were charged with terrorism offences over their service with Azov. Maksym Ryzhkov was sentenced to 21 years in a high-security penal colony. Yehor Kozhushko, Viktor Kostiuk, Taras Martyniv and Yevhen Havrysh were each sentenced to 20 years, Oleksandr Zasenko to 19 years and Ruslan Levin to 18 years.
You can read more about these cases, including addresses to write to the political prisoners, on our website.
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