Almost exactly four years after Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the invaders have claimed that Svitlana Loi (b. 1956) committed ‘state treason’ by supporting the defenders of her native Ukraine. An occupation ‘court’ was used to sentence the pensioner to 15 years for 24 donations, totalling around 700 euros, to Ukraine’s Armed Forces.
Svitlana Loi is from Tokmak in Zaporizhzhia oblast which came under Russian occupation in February 2022. It is not known how long she has been held prisoner, however the charges are of making donations from January through November 2024, so it is quite possible that she was taken prisoner in December 2024 or shortly thereafter. In all cases we do know about, Ukrainians have been abducted and, typically, held incommunicado for months or longer, with this time often used to force out supposed ‘confessions’, through torture, psychological pressure and / or threats. The conditions in any Russian and Russian-occupation penal institutions would be difficult to endure for women half Svitlana Loi’s age, and it is unlikely that she receives any medical care or medication.
Russia immediately set about forcing Ukrainians on occupied territory to take Russian citizenship, making it impossible to receive a pension, access healthcare, etc. without a Russian passport. It then turns around and uses such citizenship as excuse for accusing Ukrainians of ‘treason’, under Article 275 of Russia’s criminal code, for remaining true to their own country.
The occupation ‘prosecutor’ reported on 25 December 2025 that charges of ‘treason’ had been brought against a 69-year-old resident of Tokmak. It was asserted that “holding anti-Russian views, she had, from January through November 2024, deliberately and systematically gave financial assistance to a foreign state [sic!] in activities aimed against the security of Russia.” This was how the aggressor state described 24 donations, made via a mobile banking app, equivalent to over 63 thousand roubles (over 700 euros) to accounts allegedly used for financially supporting Ukraine’s Armed Forces.
Even without Russia’s evident violation of international law which clearly prohibits the invader from applying Russian legislation against Ukrainians on occupied territory and creating its own, Russian-controlled kangaroo courts, this was an evident travesty of justice. There was, quite simply, no trial, with the ‘case’ passed to the occupation ‘Zaporizhzhia regional court’ on 26 December 2025. A ‘hearing’ was then scheduled for 22 January 2026 but adjourned because ‘the defendant’ had not been brought to the ‘court’. At the next ‘hearing’, on 10 February, Svitlana Loi, who has either already turned, or will soon turn, 70, was sentenced to 15 years ‘medium-security imprisonment’, and a further one year’s ‘restricted liberty’. That ‘sentence’ was handed down by a Russian ‘judge’, Nikolai Sergeevich Yurgov, who has no right to engage in any such activities on occupied territory. Had the lack of an actual ‘trial’ been because Svitlana Loi ‘admitted the charges’, that would surely have been said, with the FSB regularly using torture or threats of such to force detainees to provide supposed ‘confessions’ before the camera and / or express ‘regret’ and warn other Ukrainians not to “make the same mistake”. There was nothing of the sort here.
Over the past year, Russia has massively increased its use of ‘treason’ charges against Ukrainians from occupied territory, with a huge number of appalling sentences passed for donations to Ukrainian organizations, including but not only those providing support to Ukraine’s Armed Forces. It remains unclear how the occupation regime even learns of such donations, with it likely that one of the aims of such demonstrative sentences is to instil fear among the population in general. Not one of these grotesque show trials has ended in an acquittal.
Russia’s effective information blockade in occupied territory and its use of abductions and one-day ‘trials’ has led to a situation where very little is often known about individual victims of such persecution. Every word written by the authoritative Memorial Support for Political Prisoners Project in declaring three other Ukrainian women - Olha Hulchak, Olena Penza and Yulia Stanika political prisoners, applies just as much to Svitlana Loi. Russia has no right to try residents of occupied Ukrainian territory under Russian legislation, nor to force Ukrainian citizens to accept Russian citizenship. Its persecution of Ukrainian citizens “on charges for treason against Russia, which attacked their country and violates their rights in occupation, is illegal and absurd. We furthermore consider that persecution under the article on state treason for financing Ukraine’s Army is, in principle, unfounded. It is the war of aggression launched by the authorities that threatens Russia’s security, not resistance to this aggression.”
The ‘sentence’ on 10 February 2026 is not final, but appeal hearings have, at most, reduced such terms of imprisonment by a year.
Please help give publicity to this shocking persecution of Svitlana Loi and other Ukrainians, punished so savagely for their patriotism!
See also:
Olha Hulchak, Olena Penza and Yulia Stanika
Russia sentences three Ukrainian women to 12 years for supporting Ukraine’s defenders
Iryna Sukhodei
Maryna Bilousova
Russia sentences 61-year-old Ukrainian to 12. 5 years for donation to Ukraine’s defenders
Lilia Kachkariova and Svitlana Dovhopola
Huge sentences and videoed ‘repentance’ in Russia’s mounting terror in occupied Zaporizhzhia oblast
Serhiy Shtyrov
60-year-old from Russian-occupied Donbas sentenced to 13 years for donations to Ukraine’s defenders
Tetiana Omelchenko
Kateryna Korovina
Ivan Semykoz
Russia sentences Ukrainian to 8.5 years for donation as a teenager to Ukraine’s Azov Regiment
Stanislav Rudenko
Roman Hryhorian
Ukrainian seized in Crimea and sentenced to 12 years for donations to Ukraine' s defenders
Liudmyla Kolesnikova
Three unnamed victims
Russia stages terror arrests in occupied Zaporizhzhia oblast for donations to Ukraine’s Armed Forces
