Russia’s FSB releases ‘confession’ video of former teacher detained in occupied Kherson

Russia’s security service, the FSB, has published a video in which a woman from the occupied part of Kherson Oblast says she was detained over comments she posted on the Telegram messaging app.

The woman, whose face is hidden, speaks in Ukrainian:

‘I have been detained for comments I posted on the Telegram messaging app, comments in which I supported and justified terrorism by Ukraine and called for terrorist acts against the Russian Federation. I feel remorse, of course, and I admit that I should not have done this. Above all, I put my family in danger and exposed them to harm. And, of course, my own life too.’

The independent outlet iStories identified her as Anna Pyrozhenko, 52, a former history teacher who was seized by Russian security forces on 5 August. According to iStories, she is facing charges of public calls for extremism and for terrorism, and her case has already been sent to the Southern District Military Court.

Security forces searched Anna Pyrozhenko’s home in the village of Pervokostiantynivka on 5 August and took her away to an unknown location. She is now being held in a remand prison in Chonhar, it later emerged.

Zarema Bariieva, a manager at the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, said Anna Pyrozhenko’s husband went looking for her the next day and was himself detained, beaten and tortured with a stun gun, and had his ribs broken. His Ukrainian documents were confiscated, she said, and he was released with an ultimatum to leave the occupied territory within days or follow his wife into the neighbouring cell.

Anna Pyrozhenko worked as a history teacher for about 20 years before resigning in 2022. She has since run the household and cared for her 83-year-old mother and her mother’s 77-year-old brother.