Ukrainian seized in Crimea and sentenced to 12 years for donations to Ukraine's defenders

The occupation ‘Sevastopol municipal court’ has found 49-year-old Roman Hryhorian guilty of ‘treason’ under Article 275 of Russian’s criminal code and sentenced him to 12 years’ maximum-security imprisonment.  The Ukrainian’s supposed ‘treason’ lay in his donations to the Armed Forces defending Ukraine against Russia’s invasion. 

The case should serve as a chilling warning to all Ukrainians who are thinking of returning to territory currently under Russian occupation.  Any Ukrainian is at risk of being seized on fabricated charges, with Russia first making it impossible to live on occupied territory without taking Russian citizenship and then using the fact of such citizenship as pretext for bringing state treason charges.  Such a weapon will, furthermore, be used without any mercy.  At least two Ukrainians from occupied Crimea have now faced such ‘treason’ charges for donations, with both of them seized on their return to Crimea.  Liudmyla Kolesnikova had returned to Crimea to see her dying mother.  She was seized immediately after her mother’s funeral and is now facing a sentence as bad as Hryhorian’s. 

On 7 February, the occupation Sevastopol prosecutor reported the verdict from the ‘Sevastopol municipal court’ with Hryhorian described only as a Russian citizen and charged with ‘state treason’.  The ‘court’ purportedly established that in 2023 Hryhorian and his family moved from Sevastopol to Spain.  While in Spain, he used an Internet messenger to find financial projects collecting money to buy sea and air drones, as well as armoured vehicles. From August 2023 to February 2024, Hryhorian paid money into such accounts to provide for the needs of Ukraine’s Armed Forces. 

Having described perfectly legitimate activities, the report then claims that “in such a way, Hryhorian provided financial aid to a foreign state for activities directed against the security of the Russian Federation.”

Hryhorian’s actions are claimed to have been “uncovered” by Crimean FSB officers.  Although the implication is that such ‘investigative work’ predated Hryhorian’s arrest, this may well have not been the case.  It is very likely that Hryhorian was seized after he returned to Sevastopol in 2024 in order to sell his property with the ‘evidence’’ confirming that the Ukrainian had donated money to Ukraine’s Armed Forces found by the FSB in his phone.

The sentence is ferocious, with the 12 years in a ‘harsh-regime’ (maximum-security) prison colony, followed by a further year of restricted liberty.  The occupation ‘court’ also imposed a steep, 300 thousand, rouble fine.   The ‘trial’, such as it was, would have taken place behind closed doors, with the lack of any prior information making it likely that Hryhorian did not have an independent lawyer.

A recent study by the human rights organization First Department [Pyervy Otdel]  documented a massive increase in prosecutions in Russia and occupied Ukraine on so-called ‘treason’ charges.  The study found that Article 275 (‘treason’) had become one of the most popular charges used as a weapon against those opposing Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.  

One especially disturbing aspect are the increasing number of cases where donations by Ukrainians to the defenders of their own country are treated as ‘treason’ and illegally prosecuted under the legislation of the aggressor state. 

As mentioned, 34-year-old Liudmyla Kolesnikova is imprisoned and facing ‘treason’ charges for a donation of 25 euros for Ukrainian drones

Russian FSB abduct Ukrainian from her mother’s funeral in occupied Crimea

Russia has used such charges on occupied territory, even where the Ukrainians did not have Russian citizenship.   On 17 July 2024, a Russian court sentenced 19-year-old Danylo Yefimov from occupied Snizhne (Donetsk oblast) to 12 years in a maximum-security prison colony.  The young man had made several money transfers (around $144 in total) to the Serhiy Prytula Foundation which supports both Ukraine’s defenders and civilians suffering as the result of Russia’s aggression.

Other charges may also be used.  Another 19-year-old Ukrainian from Russian-occupied Luhansk oblast Ivan Semykoz is facing a 15-year sentence on immensely cynical ‘terrorism’ charges over a donation to Ukraine’s Azov Regiment.  The regiment is part of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, but has been systematically demonized by Russia, with the latter’s ‘supreme court’ issuing a politically motivated ruling in the summer of 2022 declaring the regiment a ‘terrorist organization’.