Russia sentences 64-year-old Melitopol woman to 16 years on idiotic ‘terrorism’ charges

Russia’s Southern District Military Court has sentenced a 64-year-old Ukrainian woman from occupied Zaporizhzhia oblast to 16 years’ imprisonment for an alleged ‘act of terrorism’ which the pensioner was supposed to have attempted in broad daylight against an apparently empty military truck.  The court even imposed a further 18-month period of restricted liberty were Larysa Havrylenko to survive Russian captivity to her 80th birthday, as well as a massive 600 rouble fine.

The sentence was passed on 10 June 2025, by ‘judge’ Aleksandr Vasilievich Generalov, an individua implicated in the persecution of an ever-increasing number of  Crimean Tatar and other Ukrainian political prisoners.  The sentence is not final but, as in the vast majority of ‘trials’ of Ukrainians abducted from occupied territory, very little is known of the proceedings or whether Havrylenko had an independent lawyer.  Russia has made it impossible to receive pensions, medical care, or even hold on to private property under occupation without taking Russian citizenship.  It then used such forced citizenship as excuse for charging the Ukrainian pensioner with ‘treason’, under Article 275 of Russia’s criminal code.  She was also accused under Article 205.2 § 4 of ‘an attempted act of terrorism’; of ‘‘involvement in a terrorist organization’, under Article 205.4 § 2 and of explosives charges under Article 222.1 § 4. 

Russia’s use of its criminal legislation on occupied territory and its abductions of Ukrainian citizens are in violation of international law.  An act of resistance, targeting a Russian military truck that has no right to be on Ukrainian territory, can hardly be called ‘an act of terrorism’.

There are, however, very strong grounds for doubting that any of this took place, not least the fact that the entire video of the alleged ‘act of terrorism’ and ‘arrest’ was evidently staged.

RIA-Melitopol’s sources report that the situation was quite different.  Larysa Havrylenko is from Konstiantynivka in Melitopol raion and had recently lost her husband who had been killed after stepping on an explosive device.  The Russians had clearly decided to target her and waited until she got home to grab her.  She was seized, interrogated and coerced into ‘confessing’ to working for Ukraine’s Military Intelligence.  While there is no information as to how such a ‘confession’ was extracted, there are no grounds for hoping that her age would have made the FSB balk at using and / or threatening to apply torture. Having obtained her ‘confession’, the FSB then offered her a ‘deal’ – she would be freed if she agreed to carry a parcel up to a Russian truck.  Havrylenko was then videoed and photographed from all angles, including from a drone, as she carried out this task.  She can be seen in the video here, looking very much more as though she is carrying out the task demanded of her, rather than trying to plant a bomb in broad daylight in a very public place.

The FSB lied.  As soon as Havrylenko arrived home, she was again abducted and, this time, accused of ‘state treason’; ‘participation in a terrorist organization’ and ‘planning an act of terrorism’.  The video of Havrylenko walking up to the truck and placing the package, supposedly containing explosives, under the truck, was then used as ‘the evidence’ to back charges carrying a massive sentence.  The Russian FSB have often used staged videos for propaganda purposes with the supposed ‘arrests’ taking place long after a person has been held incommunicado and, usually, torture.  Lack of any plausibility is never a problem, neither for the state TV film crews there for the coverage, nor for the Russian or occupation ‘courts’.

In announcing this latest sentence, the court’s press service repeated the indictment, according to which Larysa Havrylenko , “had, being a supporter of pro-Ukrainian ideology, made contact with an officer of Ukraine’s Security Service and agreed to his suggestion to join a terrorist organization.”  She was supposed to have, immediately, removed two homemade explosive devices, from a secret hiding place and taken them home, where she held them until 21 October 2023.  A week earlier, she was alleged to have checked the route and the time it would take to get from her home to the place of the purportedly planned ‘act of terrorism’. 

She had, supposedly, received an instruction at around 11 a.m. on 21 October 2023 to travel along this route to the shop where the Russian military truck was parked, which she did.  It was claimed that she had, in full view of everybody around, placed the homemade explosive device between the driver’s cabin and the main part of the truck, activating the explosive which was due to go off in two hours and 45 minutes.  This idiotic plot was part of the ‘thwarted terrorist attacks’ genre, with it claimed that Havrylenko and the others were prevented from bringing off their “criminal plan” because the device was, “discovered, defused and removed.”

There were several hearings, almost certainly behind closed doors, with this suggesting, at least, that Havrylenko denied the charges and will, presumably lodge an appeal against the monstrous sentence.