After invading Ukraine and staging a fake ‘referendum’ at gunpoint to pretend Ukrainians wanted this, Russia began fabricating surreal ‘international terrorism’ charges against those Ukrainians who showed their opposition too openly. One of the Ukrainians abducted from her home, very likely tortured and then subjected to such a ‘trial’ was Iryna Kulish, now 53, from occupied Vasylivka raion in Zaporizhzhia oblast. She was initially sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment, with a Russian military court of appeal having now added two years.
As is often the case, the fact that Iryna Kulish had been put on trial was essentially learned with the news of her sentence on 29 July 2024. It was claimed that, on 11 September 2022, “another person” had contacted Kulish by mobile, and had “informed her of the need to carry out an explosion at a referendum polling station” in Vasylivka. Plausibility is never an issue with ‘trials’ taking place at the Southern District Military Court in Rostov, and here it was asserted that Kulish had, that very same day, “obtained explosive devices which she transported and kept at her home from 11 to 23 September 2022.”
On 23 September, Kulish was claimed to have “carried out the illegal carrying and illegal transfer by bicycle of the explosive devices to the referendum polling station». She had, however, been prevented from carrying out this supposed plan of planting the explosive devices by the Russian soldiers and ‘police’ guarding the premises. It is also typical of many Russia trials of Ukrainian political prisoners that a ‘drugs’ charge was added, with Kulish charged with possession of a narcotic substance, without any plan to sell it.
The indictment is chillingly similar to that against Iryna Navalna, a young Mariupol woman who was almost certainly seized by the Russians originally because she shared the surname of the late Russian opposition figure and political prisoner Alexei Navalny.
A key difference, however, was that in Kulish’s case, the Russian invaders added a charge of breathtaking cynicism. Russia as an invading power accused Iryna Kulish, a Ukrainian living in her own country, of ‘planning an act of international terrorism’, under Article 361 § 1 (and Article 30 § 1) of Russia’s criminal code; of illegal possession of an explosive (Article 222,1 § 3) and of illegal possession of a narcotics substance (Article 228 § 1).
Kulish was sentenced on 29 July 2024 to seven years in a medium-security prison colony, with a 15 thousand rouble fine also imposed.
It was this sentence from the Southern District Military Court that was increased on 23 December 2024 by the Vlasikha military court of appeal in Moscow region. It is unclear why the original sentence was deemed ‘too lenient’, unless this was simply in reprisal for Kulish having lodged an appeal. The new sentence of nine years in a medium-security prison colony, and 300 thousand rouble fine has now, unfortunately, come into force.
No mention in any of the Russian reports is made of the fact that Iryna Kulish has very likely been held in Russian captivity since September 2022. While there undoubtedly is a resistance movement on all occupied territory and activities linked with Russia’s fake ‘referendum’ were a legitimate target, it is quite possible that Iryna Kulish was seized because she expressed pro-Ukrainian views, or even because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Russia’s so-called ‘referendum’ stunt involved supposed ‘electoral committees’ accompanied by armed Russian soldiers going from house to house, with the so-called ‘votes’ cast with such individuals standing over people, brandishing machine guns. The alleged ‘results’ were determined in advance in Moscow and condemned as meaningless by all democratic countries.
