A Russian court of appeal has upheld 12-year sentences on surreal ‘treason’ charges against 42-year-old Victoria Strilets and her 24-year-old daughter, Oleksandra Strilets, from occupied Sevastopol. While there is nothing new in Russian and occupation ‘courts’ rubberstamping of politically motivated sentences, this case is still staggeringly brutal. Victoria Strilets (b. 29.03.1983) is suffering from multiple sclerosis, a cruel and debilitating disease, which can only progress more swiftly and cause immense suffering and discomfort in the appalling conditions of a Russian prison colony. Oleksandra Strilets (b. 28.06.2000) has two very small daughters, the younger of whom had been born prematurely four months before Oleksandra herself and her mother was taken into Russian captivity. ‘Judge’ Yelena Udod from the Third court of appeal of general jurisdiction, on 21 January 2026 could have at least deferred Oleksandra’s sentence until her younger daughter turned fourteen yet claimed to see no grounds, as the children “have a father”.
It should be stressed that we are not dealing here with dangerous criminals. Although Russia’ holds all such ‘trials’ on treason or spying charges behind closed doors, the two women were accused only of passing several photos of military sites (or vessels of the Black Sea Fleet) to Ukraine’s Military Intelligence [HUR].
As reported, the original sentences were handed down by ‘judge’ Daniil Zemlyukov, from the occupation ‘Sevastopol city court’ on 5 August 2025. Both women were convicted of ‘treason’ under Article 175 of Russia’s criminal code and sentenced to twelve years in a medium-security prison colony, to be followed by a year of restricted liberty. It was claimed that Oleksandra Strilets “had decided, for remuneration, to cooperate on a confidential basis with representatives of Ukraine against the security of the Russian Federation.” She had, purportedly, also got her mother involved in this and had, in September 2023 passed photographs, taken by her mother, of sites of the Russian armed forces to a HUR-controlled Messenger channel.
There were two ‘hearings’ in total – the first, lasting four hours, on 22 June 2026; the second – five hours, with that including the reading out of the sentence. As the Crimean Process human rights initiative noted, this could not possibly be enough time to comprehensively examine the evidence for very serious charges.
Crimean Process reported that the two women had originally been arrested on 3 October 2024, with the charge then of ‘passing on information on a confidential basis, under Article 275.1 of Russia’s criminal code. It was only learned in June 2025 that the women had, instead, been charged with ‘treason’.
It only became clear much later, through details uncovered by Mediazona, why Russia’s FSB had not, as it usually does, insisted on detention from October 2024, with the two women only taken into custody on 5 August 2025.
Mediazona reported that Oleksandra, together with her younger sister, had moved from Sevastopol in 2014 to Mykolaiv, together with their father who was clearly in Ukraine’s Armed Forces. Victoria explained that she had remained in the city of her birth, unable to leave her “home, mother and stability”, but had visited them whenever she could. It is, in fact, likely that any stability became especially illusory, after 2022 when the link to Ukraine’s Armed Forces would have meant that both Victoria and Oleksandra were obvious FSB targets.
Oleksandra was planning to enter university after finishing school in 2017. She visited her mother for the summer but found herself forced to remain and to look for work because of her mother’s health issues. These had emerged several years earlier but were only then identified as due to multiple sclerosis, with Oleksandra at times holding down three jobs to help pay for the medication needed.
Oleksandra’s first daughter, Solomiya, was born in 2020, with Oleksandra reporting that both she and her daughter had almost died because of the treatment in the Sevastopol hospital. Oleksandra with her daughter and Victoria seem to have lived together for most of those first years of Solomiya’s life, however Oleksandra returned to the little girl’s father in March 2024, and, according to her account on social media, which Mediazona followed, had resigned from her work in March 2024 and was planning to move with Solomiya to be with Maksym in Simferopol. According to this report, she learned from friends on her last day at work that they had seen her mother being detained. That is considerably earlier than the reported ‘arrests’ in October 2024, when both women were interrogated, but were not taken into custody, with the Mediazona report suggesting that it was in September 2024 that the two women were charged with ‘treason’. Oleksandra was even held under house arrest for two months.
Lera, her second daughter, was born two months early, and was still in intensive care, often unable to breathe independently, when Oleksandra and Victoria were taken into custody. With the sentences now having come into force, both women are likely to be sent to prison colonies very far from the children who are with their father.
Victoria Strilets needs treatment every six months to prevent the multiple sclerosis from worsening. She is unlikely to receive any treatment at all in Russian captivity.
