Oksana Senedzhuk will be spending her 59th birthday on 27 October 2025 in a Siberian prison colony, or in one of the prison stops on the way to this destination if her Russian captors continue dragging out the gruelling journey. According to her daughter, Maria Kostiuk, Russia has not sent any other female political prisoner so far from occupied Crimea, with the horrific 15-year sentence only the worst of a long pattern of Russian persecution against a Ukrainian who did not conceal her opposition to Russia’s invasion and occupation of Crimea.
Kostiuk explained to the ZMINA Human Rights Centre that the illegal deportation to Russia and journey from prison to prison began back on 14 July 2025. Despite this, it was only at the beginning of September that the family learned of the planned destination. Senedzhuk had pleaded to at least be imprisoned closer to Crimea where she had been looking after her mother who is 87. The disregard for this is, unfortunately, no surprise. Russia has demonstrated total brutality when it comes to Crimean Tatar and other Ukrainian political prisoners. Not only are they imprisoned thousands of kilometres from their families, but, even while held in detention, before any sentence has been passed, several political prisoners have been prevented from being at a parent’s funeral and, in the case of Crimean Solidarity civic journalist, Ruslan Suleimanov, the funeral of his three-year-old son.
Before Russia’s invasion, Oksana Senedzhuk worked at the department of internal policy of the Sevastopol City Administration. Later, she became chief specialist at the ‘Sevastopol scientific research and planning institute of urban design, architecture, surveys and environment’. Her family say that, although Senedzhuk had actively supported the Euromaidan protests in 2013-14 it was after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine that she began being persecuted for her openly pro-Ukrainian position and opposition to Russia’s aggression. The FSB constantly summoned her for interrogation. Maria Kostiuk soon left occupied Crimea but explains that her parents could not leave as they both needed to care for elderly parents.
It seems that the harassment of her mother intensified in 2023, with the FSB carrying out searches of her home. Had there been anything ‘incriminating’, she would surely have been seized earlier. Instead, the FSB came for Senedzhuk at her workplace on 14 August 2024.
Oksana Senedzhuk was charged with ‘treason’ under Article 275 of Russia’s criminal code, with Russia using the fact that it has made it impossible to live on occupied territory without taking Russian citizenship in order to accuse Ukrainians of ‘treason’ with respect to the aggressor state and pass very long sentences. It is entirely unclear how she was supposed to have had access to such information. The allegations seem especially implausible, given the degree to which Senedzhuk was evidently and demonstratively under FSB surveillance.
Although Senedzhuk had been imprisoned since August 2024, information about her seizure and the charges against her emerged only with news of her ‘trial’ and sentence on 26 December 2024. She was found ‘guilty’ of treason by ‘judge’ Igor Vladimirovich Kozhevnikov from the occupation ‘Sevastopol municipal court’ and sentenced to 15 years in a medium-security prison colony. Kozhevnikov also imposed a fine of 200 thousand roubles, and a year’s restricted liberty after the term of imprisonment.
The sentence was, predictably, upheld by a Russian court of appeal on 15 May. Oksana wrote to her daughter that the ‘judges’ appeared to have arrived with their ruling prepared in advance.
There has been a huge increase in such ‘treason’ and ‘spying trials’ since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine with literally all of them resulting in ‘convictions’ and very long sentences. All ‘hearings’ are held behind closed doors, with it seldom even known if the person had an independent lawyer. The charges all seem copy-pasted, one from another, with the common denominator in all those cases where information is available being the person’s pro-Ukrainian views.
Senedzhuk’s sentence was condemned by a large number of Ukrainian human rights organizations. Despite the lack of information, Russia’s respected Memorial Support for Political Prisoners Project has added Senedzhuk to its list of likely political prisoners.
Please write to Oksana!
The letters will help her, and Moscow, know that she is not forgotten. Letters need to be in Russian, handwritten and on ‘innocuous’ subjects. If it is not possible to write in Russian, you could send a photo or picture with the following lines.
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
670000, Россия, г. Улан-Удэ, ул. Пристанская 4 «а», на этапе, ФКУ ИК-7 УФСИН России по Республике Бурятия,
Сенеджук Оксана Анатольевна, 1966 г. р.
