Russia sentences 68-year-old Ukrainian man with a disability to 14 years in prison on treason charges

The Kamchatka Krai Court sentenced 68-year-old Valerii Dobrovolskyi to 14 years in a high-security penal colony on charges of high treason (Article 275 of the Russian Criminal Code), the court’s press office told the news agency DS. The verdict was handed down on 22 September.

According to Mediazona, a criminal case was opened against Valerii Dobrovolskyi in March 2025. He was initially charged with the lesser offence of confidential cooperation with a foreign entity, but by the time the case reached the court the charge had been changed to high treason. Political Prisoners Memorial has recognised Dobrovolskyi as a political prisoner.

He was under house arrest during the investigation. In one appeal against the measure, his lawyer noted that Valerii Dobrovolskyi was first questioned in November 2024 and that, since then, he had not tried to abscond and had attended whenever summoned by officers of the Federal Security Service (FSB).

The details of the charges are unknown, but one court ruling states that Valerii Dobrovolskyi acknowledged that he had ‘maintained contact with representatives of the SBU [Security Service of Ukraine] over an extended period’. The ruling also states that he has a Group II disability due to ‘speech and cognitive impairments’, and that his health deteriorated significantly after his detention.

Leaked database records indicate that Valerii Dobrovolskyi was born in Zhytomyr Oblast, Ukraine, where his sons still live. In 2023 he travelled there to renew his Ukrainian passport before returning to Kamchatka. He lived in Zaporozhye, a village in the south of the peninsula where a community of Ainu people lives. The charge against him suggests that he also holds Russian citizenship.