Woman sentenced to 15 years for planning a ‘terrorist attack’ against Russian ‘Z’ war symbol in occupied Crimea
The Russian FSB’s latest ‘terrorism and treason’ plot on instructions from Ukraine’s Security Service [SBU] would be comical were it not for the very real 15-year sentence just passed against 39-year-old Olha Kolkova. Against the background of Russia’s full-scale invasion and occupation of Ukrainian territory, the SBU were claimed to have gone to the trouble of recruiting Kolkova to set fire to a vehicle flaunting the ‘Z’ symbol of Russia’s war of aggression.
Russia’s claim that a defendant seized in occupied Ukraine is ‘Russian’ and / or charge of ‘state treason’ against Russia normally mean no more than that the person has been forced to take Russian citizenship. In this case, however, the Memorial Support for Political Prisoners Project calls Kolkova (b. 1985) a resident of Bryansk oblast (in the Russian Federation) and the indictment also suggests that she came to Crimea in 2023. This does not, of course, necessarily mean that she is not Ukrainian, nor does it indicate when she really arrived in occupied Crimea, as the claim made in the indictment seems extremely implausible.
Virtually all such ‘trials’ are held behind closed doors, with nothing known except the official indictment. There were, however, nine hearings which probably means that Kolkova denied the charges and possibly that she had an independent lawyer.
Kolkova was charged with ‘treason’ (under Article 275 of Russia’s criminal code); with ‘planning an act of terrorism’ (under Articles 205 § 1, 30 § 1); and with ‘undergoing training in order to carry out terrorist activities’ (Article 205.3). In reporting the sentence on 26 February 2025, the court claimed to have established that, while in Istanbul from 25 to 26 September 2023, Kolkova had made contact with an SBU officer and had agreed to cooperate with the SBU. She had, it was claimed, agreed to move to Crimea, undergo training in preparing homemade grenades and to carry out terrorist acts in Crimea.
She is alleged to have moved to Crimea on 13 November 2023, and immediately, from 13-14 November 2023,, to have received a task from the SBU officer to obtain the components needed for two homemade hand grenades; to determine an appropriate target for attack – a vehicle with ‘Z’ on it, with the grenades to be used to set fire to it.
It is unclear why these specific dates are named, but it seems most implausible that any person would hope (or be asked by the SBU) to arrive in occupied Crimea and immediately risk drawing attention to herself by obtaining components for making grenades, keeping the latter in her doubtless rented apartment and searching for “an appropriate target for attack”. She was also alleged to have, after her arrival, obtained a mobile and installed a special app in order to create a new secure means of contact and receive instructions on preparing homemade hand grenades.
She was supposed to have, from 28 to 30 November 2023, received video instructions and an explanation on making the grenades. She purportedly then decided on when and where to carry out this supposed terrorist act, with the use of two grenades that she was keeping at her home.
As on multiple other occasions, the case is based on the FSB’s claim to have ‘thwarted’ Kolkova’s plans. It is likely that she has been imprisoned since November or December 2023, with it entirely unclear how long she was held in custody before the FSB came up with charges and had her formally remanded in custody. This is of major relevance as Russia’s FSB have a long and ugly track record of abducting Ukrainian civilians from occupied territory, holding them incommunicado and subjecting them to torture in order to extract ‘confessions’ before admitting that they are in custody.
There is no information as to whether she later had an independent lawyer. Even if she did, the chances of her having received a fair trial at Russia’s notorious Southern District Military Court are close to nil. The sentence of 15 years medium-security prison colony (the worst penal institution available in the case of women) was passed by ‘judge’ Valery Sergeevich Opanasenko, who has already been involved in sentences against Crimean Tatar or other Ukrainian political prisoners. The verdict can still be appealed, however the Vlasikha military court of appeal in Moscow region effectively always rubberstamps politically motivated sentences.
Although the Crimean Human Rights Group reports that at least 250 Ukrainian citizens held in Russian captivity are victims of political or religious persecution, the real figure is likely to be much higher, given the huge number of civilians abducted from all parts of Ukraine that have fallen under occupation.
The following are simply the most recent of a huge number of very worrying sentences
Ruslan Mambetov
Crimean Tatar sentenced to 18 years in Russian secret ‘trial’ where only torture is near certain
Oleksandr Markov, Liubov Voinova
Anastasia Todurova
Russia sentences Mariupol mother of four to 14 years on 'terrorism' and ‘treason’ charges
Hanna Yeltsova
Ivan Semykoz
Russia sentences Ukrainian to 8.5 years for donation as a teenager to Ukraine’s Azov Regiment
Oksana Ivanchenko
Danylo Yefimov
19-year-old from occupied Donbas sentenced to 12 years for donation for Ukrainian defenders