A Russian illegal ‘court’ in occupied Zaporizhzhia oblast has sentenced 58-year-old Lilia Kachkariova to 14 years’ imprisonment, claiming that the Ukrainian’s donation to Ukraine’s Armed Forces constituted ‘state treason’.
Lilia Kachkariova is from Enerhodar and it was the city’s elected Mayor, Dmytro Orlov, who, on 15 April 2025, reported this latest sentence against an employee of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. It is known only that Kachkariova was abducted in December 2024 and has just been sentenced by the occupation ‘Zaporizhzhia regional court’. Such scant information is typical of any territory that has fallen under Russian occupation and reflects both the methods of terror against the Ukrainian population and the kangaroo court nature of any ‘trials’. All of Russia’s ‘spying’ or ‘treason trials’ take place behind closed doors, but those on occupied territory are typically only reported after a sentence has been passed, with no guarantee even that the ‘defendant’ had a lawyer, let alone that other vital components of a fair trial were provided.
Any application by Russia of its legislation on occupied territory is in violation of international law (the Fourth Geneva Convention), but Russia’s use of ‘state treason’ charges, under Article 276 of its criminal code, is still particularly shocking. A Ukrainian citizen, living in her own Ukrainian city, was convicted by an occupying state of ‘treason’ against Russia for donating money to the Armed Forces defending her native country. The claim that Lilia Kachkariova was now ‘Russian’ because she has Russian citizenship is cynical and invalid. Russia has made it impossible to receive medical care, work, defend ones property rights, etc. without Russian citizenship. Kachkariova’s Russian passport, under such circumstances, should be viewed as having been forced upon the Ukrainian woman at gunpoint. The language used is no less cynical, with donations to Ukraine’s Armed Forces being referred to as “support for Ukrainian armed formations.”
Dmytro Orlov notes that over twenty civilian hostages from Enerhodar are currently held prisoner by the Russians. The latter regularly abduct more civilians, torturing them and fabricating criminal prosecutions.
He points also to a disturbing trend seen in all areas currently under Russian occupation, namely the increasing number of women whom the Russians abduct and then imprison. Among the very large number of Ukrainian employees of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant abducted since Russia seized control in early March 2022, we know of long sentences against at least three women. 56-year-old Natalia Shulha was sentenced in early March 2025 to 15 years on supposed ‘sabotage’ charges. This was after she had been held incommunicado for eight months. The aggressor state, which has been systematically bombing Ukraine’s energy infrastructure since October 2022, claimed that Shulha had been part of a Ukrainian ‘plot’ to blow up a power cable.
In August 2024, another ZNPP employee, Tetiana Klochko was sentenced by Russia’s Southern District Military Court in Rostov to 12 years on flawed ‘terrorism’ charges. It was claimed that she had planned a ‘terrorist attack’ on one of the plant’s heads.
Russia began abducting employees of the plant soon after seizing control with one of the motives appearing to be the sheer terrorization of others. From those cases we know about, it seems likely that people were targeted for their pro-Ukrainian position, with the Russians then coming up with ‘charges’. This may be the case here, in which case Lilia Kachkariova’s donation to Ukraine’s Armed Forces might have been discovered after she had already been abducted and her phone taken away for close scrutiny. There may, however, be other explanations for the significantly increased number of such ‘trials’ over donations to Ukraine’s Armed Forces or specific regiments. Both men and women have already received long sentences or are facing such over donations, with it possible that Russia is either forcing banks to pass on confidential information about clients or is even setting people up with fake advertisements on how to make such donations.
See details of earlier ‘trials’
Nalalia Shulha Fake Russian ‘court’ sentences abducted Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant employee to 15 years on 'sabotage' charges
Tetiana Klochko Russia sentences Ukrainian to 12 years on fake Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant ‘terrorism’ charges
Serhiy Spartesny Ongoing terror as Russia passes grotesque 'sentence' against abducted Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant employee
Oleh Morochkovsky and Dmytro Yevsieliev Abducted Ukrainians tortured into claiming Ukraine carried out Russia’s attack on Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant
Another employee of the plant, Oleksiy Brazhnyk was last seen in February 2023, when the Russians produced a propaganda video, claiming to have ‘deported’ him.
Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant engineer held and tortured by Russian invaders for over a year
