Oksana Fedorova sentenced to over 10 years for ‘endangering Russian security’ on occupied Ukrainian territory

Oksana Fedororova (b. 1972) is one of an ever-mounting number of women whom Russia seized since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine and has sentenced to long terms of imprisonment on mystery ‘spying’; ‘treason’ or ‘terrorism’ charges.  As in almost all such cases, Oksana was held prisoner for several months before a Moscow court remanded her in custody.  Such periods, during which a person is held incommunicado and without any official status are, typically, used to extract ‘confessions’ via physical torture and other forms of duress.

Before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Fedorova had worked at the Centre for Integrated Social Services in Novotroitske (Kherson oblast).  She was abducted by the Russians from her home in Novotroitske on 15 November 2022, although the invaders on this occasion did not conceal their involvement and twice brought her back to her home fleetingly to collect documents and, the second time, warm clothes.

She was taken to Lefortovo SIZO [remand prison] in Moscow on 3 April 2024, or just before, with it only on 3 April that a court remanded her in custody, with formal charges finally laid. 

The ZMINA Human Rights Centre has spoken with a friend of hers, Olena, who says that she received a letter from Fedorova while the latter was at Lefortovo, sharing a cell with Yanina Akulova, a political prisoner abducted from occupied Melitopol.  “She’s the terrorist, and I’m the spy”, she wrote with irony, “such are the criminals who are highly dangerous for the Russian Federation.  We’re both desperately hoping that we will soon be released in an exchange”.

She had been told by the ‘investigator’ that her ‘trial’ would be in occupied Henichesk [Kherson oblast], where, they were claiming, the spying was supposed to have taken place.  In her letter, Fedorova wrote that she had initially been taken by the Russian military around Kherson, Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts, and that she had been brought to Lefortovo on 3 April 2023, the day of the court detention hearing. 

In Lefortovo, she had been diagnosed as having high blood pressure and had been assigned treatment.  According to Olena, her friend had suffered from both heart and blood pressure issues before her abduction and had taken medication for them.

Lefortovo is a fairly high-profile remand prison.  It is, unfortunately, much less likely that Fedorova received any medication or treatment for health issues when she was taken from there to a Simferopol SIZO in occupied Crimea, and now in a Russian prison colony. Olena adds that her friend’s eyesight had also deteriorated dramatically, with it hard for her to read.  She was waiting then to be seen by an eye specialist. Whether this happened is unclear, but judging by the shocking treatment that other women political prisoners, such as Iryna Danilovich, have received, optimism does not seem warranted.

It is not known when Fedorova was moved from Lefortovo to occupied Crimea, but the supposed ‘trial’ took place on 9 May 2024, with the Ukrainian illegally sentenced under Article 276 of Russia’s criminal code (‘spying’) to ten and a half years’ imprisonment in a medium security prison colony.  Not only was this mystery ‘trial’ held entirely behind closed doors, but it was, purportedly, before ‘a panel of judges from the occupation Kherson regional court’, although she was imprisoned in occupied Crimea.  

It was claimed that the Ukrainian had, on instructions from Ukraine’s Military Intelligence, passed them screenshots of the coordinates of places where the Russian invaders of her Ukrainian home were deployed.  The aggressor state’s functionaries did, of course, express this rather differently, with Fedorova alleged to have fully understood that the information could be used “against the security of the Russian Federation”.  This was because it would help Ukraine’s Security Service and Armed Forces carry out what the Russian invading state claimed were “sabotage and reconnaissance measures, terrorist acts and missile or artillery strikes to eliminate Russian military personnel and technology.”   The ‘court’ found Oksana Fedorova guilty of having, on Ukrainian territory, “carried out a deliberate, especially grave crime against the constitutional order and security of the Russian Federation.”

It was asserted that she had “fully admitted guilt”.  Since the entire ‘trial’ was behind closed doors, there is no way of knowing if this was true and, more importantly, whether methods of duress were applied to get her to do so.  There is nothing to suggest that she had an independent lawyer, nor any other basic elements of a fair trial.   It is also unlikely as the sentence was challenged, although an unidentified ‘court of appeal’ rejected her appeal in December 2024.   The Memorial Support for Political Prisoners Project has included her in its very long list of Ukrainians and Russians whose prosecution is almost certainly politically motivated.

Oksana is now imprisoned in a Mordovian prison colony in eastern Russia and needs both letters of support to show her that she has not been forgotten, and publicity, to ensure that she is released in a prisoner exchange.  Letters also warn Moscow and the prison authorities that their behaviour is under scrutiny.  They do, unfortunately, need to be in Russian, and on ‘safe’ subjects.  If that is a problem, use the sample letter below (copying it by hand), perhaps adding a picture or photo. 

Sample letter

Привет,

Желаю Вам крепкого здоровья и надеюсь, Вы скоро вернетесь домой, к своим родным.  Простите, что мало пишу – мне трудно писать по-русски, но мы все о Вас помним.

[Hi.  I wish you good health and hope that you will soon be home, with your family. I’m sorry that this letter is short – it’s hard for me to write in Russian., but you are not forgotten. ] 

Address (this can be in Russian or English)

431160, РФ, Республика Мордовия, Зубово-Полянский р-н, п. Явас, ул. Чернореченская, д. 1, ФКУ ИК-2 УФСИН России по Республике Мордовия, Фёдоровой Оксане Викторовне 1972 г. р.

Or in English

431160 Russian Federation, Mordovia, Zubovo-Polyansky district, Yavas, 1 Chernorechenskaya St, Prison Colony No. 2

Fedorova, Oksana Viktorivna, b. 1972