Pensioner using crutches in occupied Tokmak sentenced to 12 years for financing the Ukrainian Armed Forces

A 69-year-old resident of Tokmak, in the occupied part of Zaporizhzhia Oblast, has been sentenced to 12 years in a general-regime penal colony on charges of financing the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The occupation-controlled Zaporizhzhia Oblast Court announced the sentence in a press release.

In a video published by the court, the woman’s surname is heard as Nadeyina. Mediazona identified her through social media profiles as Natalia Nadeyina.

Before the verdict, Natalia Nadeyina had been under house arrest. She was taken into custody in the courtroom after the sentence was announced. The video shows her standing up with the aid of crutches. Mediazona also noted that she is pictured using a walking stick in a photograph posted on Odnoklassniki in 2021.

Natalia Nadeyina was convicted of high treason (Article 275 of the Russian Criminal Code). According to the court, she obtained a Russian passport in August 2023 but ‘opposed the special military operation and held a negative attitude towards representatives of the Russian state authorities’. She was accused of making 39 transfers totalling 60,454 roubles (≈€623) from her Ukrainian pension in support of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.