Anzhelika Demianenko was just 20 when she and her father were seized by the Russians while trying to leave occupied Kherson oblast. Both father and daughter were held, incommunicado, in the Russian invaders’ torture prisons for over 18 months before an occupation ‘court’ sentenced them to huge terms of imprisonment. It is unclear when Russia first charged Oleksiy Demianenko with ‘treason’, and his daughter with ‘spying’, but there are no grounds for believing that they had any semblance of a fair trial or, in fact, any trial at all, before monstrous sentences were passed.
Oleksiy Demianenko (b. 7.02.1971) and Anzhelika Demianenko (b. 25.08.2003) are from the Henichesk area of Kherson oblast which has been under Russian occupation since February 2022. At the end of 2023, they tried to escape occupation, with the only option being via occupied Crimea and then Russia. They were stopped at the illegal checkpoint in occupied Chonhar, with the FSB having seemingly found something on their phones that they deemed ‘suspicious’. Under no circumstances could any such content justify holding the two incommunicado, without any official status, for over 18 months. Both were held prisoner in illegal ‘prisons’ set up by the invaders to hold, and often torture, civilian hostages.
Much of the scant information available has come from former hostages who were held together with Oleksiy Demianenko in a torture prison which the Russians set up in the basement of the local ‘house of culture’ in the village of Odradivkaa (Henichesk raion), They spoke highly of Oleksiy to the Centre for Journalist Investigations [CJI] and said that he had been very supportive of the other hostages. Anzhelika is believed to have been held at a secret SIZO [remand prison] in occupied Chonhar where the Russians reportedly moved some of the political prisoners they were holding in Crimea.
Both father and daughter had been illegally held prisoner for around 18 months when the occupation ‘prosecutor’ announced that Oleksiy Demianenko was accused of ‘state treason’ under Article 275 of Russia’s criminal code; Anzhelika Demianenko – of ‘spying’ (Article 276). The only reason for the different charges is that Oleksiy Demianenko has Russian citizenship, without which the occupying state has made it next to impossible to live, work and uphold property rights.
Oleksiy Demianenko was sentenced on 1 July 2025 by the occupation ‘Kherson regional court’ to 14 years’ maximum-security imprisonment, and a steep 250 thousand rouble fine. It was claimed that Oleksiy Demianenko had, in October 2023, passed on to his daughter, described only as “a Ukrainian national”, information about mobile communications towers, the movements and places of deployment of Russian military technology and personnel in occupied Kherson oblast. The “Ukrainian national” had, it was asserted, passed on this information to members of Ukraine’s Military Intelligence.
The same Russian state-controlled TASS agency reported on 7 July 2025 that Anzhelika Demianenko had been sentenced to 10.5 years’ imprisonment in a medium-security prison colony, with the supposed ‘trial’ also before the occupation ‘Kherson regional court.’ It was claimed that, in October 2023, “being a Ukrainian citizen”, she had received information about mobile communications towers, the movements and places of deployment of Russian military technology and personnel in occupied Kherson oblast which she passed to members of Ukraine’s Military Intelligence.
The prosecution did not even try to coordinate the stories with Oleksiy’s alleged actions claimed to have been used to direct weapons about the invaders’ military, while Anzhelika’s supposed sharing of information was only claimed to have theoretically been able to be used.
Russia’s prosecution of Oleksiy and Anzhelika Demianenko would be illegal even were there any substance to these ‘charges’. Russia is illegally occupying Ukrainian territory, with no right to deploy its “military technology and personnel’. It is also violating international law by applying Russian legislation on occupied territory and imprisoning Ukrainians on Russian territory.
It is, however, very likely that the charges, which are repeated almost verbatim in a huge number of cases, are pure fabrication. Such long periods where a person is held incommunicado, without any status, are very often used to extract ‘confessions’ through torture, threats, etc. Even where, exceptionally, the person later receives access to independent lawyers and / or reports such torture during hearings, this is ignored by the Russian-controlled ‘courts’, with convictions and long sentences effectively guaranteed. Under such conditions, the fact that Anzhelika Demianenko (but not her father) is heard saying she ‘admits’ to the charges means nothing.
Crimean Tribunal reported on 16 February that Anzhelika has been taken to a prison colony at Yavas in Mordovia. Although, in theory, women are not sentenced to maximum-security prison colonies, with ‘medium security’ the worst applied, this distinction is largely in name alone. Crimean Tribunal points out that the prison colony in Mordovia is notorious for its hard labour in extreme conditions and its exceptionally bad treatment of prisoners. It is not known where Anzhelika’s father is imprisoned, and whether he lodged an appeal against the huge 14-year sentence.
