A Russian occupation ‘court’ has sentenced Mykola Tynkov (b. 1955) to ten years’ maximum-security imprisonment, with the aggressor state essentially acknowledging in the indictment that the Ukrainian pensioner was charged solely with supporting his country.
This was the second huge sentence against elderly Ukrainians churned out in the space of two days by Russian ‘judge’ Valery Valerievich Zmeyev at the occupation ‘Zaporizhzhia regional court’. and presented by ‘prosecutor’ Yulian Andreevich Sklyarov. There was a telling difference, however, with the 11-year sentence on 5 March 2026 against Halyna Bekhter, and very many other Ukrainians, on ‘treason’ charges, because the invaders have made it near impossible to live on occupied territory without taking Russian citizenship.
Mykola Tynkov, however, had held out and not received a Russian passport, making it impossible to accuse him of ‘treason’. A charge no less absurd was used to ensure a similar sentence. The aggressor state illegally occupying Ukrainian territory accused a Ukrainian citizen living on that territory of “providing help to the enemy in actions knowingly aimed against the security of the Russian Federation”, under Article 276.1 of Russia’s criminal code.
The report from the occupation ‘court’ made it quite clear that Mykola Tynkov, who has either already turned or will soon turn 71 and is from the village of Azovske in Berdiansk raion, was being punished for his patriotism.
It was claimed that Tynkov had, in March 2025, “being a supporter of pro-Ukrainian ideology and experiencing animosity to the current Russian authorities, took the decision to provide financial aid to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.”
He found a mobile app and transferred 3,015 UAH [around 60 euros) as a donation to help Ukraine’s defenders, with this claimed to have been “the crime of providing financial assistance to the enemy”.
While forced to choose a different charge to persecute a Ukrainian for supporting the defenders of his country against an invader, the indictment repeated Russia’s mantra about such actions being “against the security of the Russian Federation”.
The Russian Memorial Support for Political Prisoners Project has given a robust response to this nonsense, stating “It is the war of aggression launched by the authorities that threatens Russia’s security, not resistance to this aggression.”
Although ‘guilty’ verdicts and long sentences are effectively guaranteed, and any ‘hearings’ held behind closed doors, there was no attempt to even imitate a trial in this case. The ‘indictment’ was passed to the occupation ‘Zaporizhzhia regional court’ on 13 February 2026, with the date set for the ‘hearing’ being the date of the ‘sentence’, i.e. 6 March.
These horrific sentences and the image of Mykola Tynkov, who was clearly agitated and trying to take deep breaths, are, undoubtedly, aimed at terrifying the population and convincing them of Russia’s total surveillance. Age is not taken into consideration with almost any sentence against a man on such charges being for ‘harsh-regime’ [maximum-security] imprisonment where the conditions and treatment of prisoners are appalling.
Other victims (the list is, unfortunately, unlikely to be comprehensive)
Halyna Bekhter
Russia sentences 69-year-old Ukrainian pensioner to 11 years for sending money to Ukraine
Maryna Bilousova
Russia sentences 61-year-old Ukrainian to 12. 5 years for donation to Ukraine’s defenders
Roman Hryhorian
Ukrainian seized in Crimea and sentenced to 12 years for donations to Ukraine' s defenders
Olha Hulchak; Olena Penza and Yulia Stanika
Russia sentences three Ukrainian women to 12 years for supporting Ukraine’s defenders
Lilia Kachkariova and Svitlana Dovhopola
Huge sentences and videoed ‘repentance’ in Russia’s mounting terror in occupied Zaporizhzhia oblast
Oleksandr Kachkurkin
Young Crimean deported from Kazakhstan to face huge sentence in Russia for donating money to Ukraine
Liudmyla Kolesnikova
Kateryna Korovina
Kyrylo Kostyhov
Maryna Kovalenko
Svitlana Loi
Russia sentences 70-year-old pensioner from occupied Tokmak to 15 years for supporting Ukraine
Tetiana Omelchenko
Stanislav Rudenko
Ivan Semykoz
Russia sentences Ukrainian to 8.5 years for donation as a teenager to Ukraine’s Azov Regiment
Serhiy Shtyrov
60-year-old from Russian-occupied Donbas sentenced to 13 years for donations to Ukraine’s defenders
Yulia Stanika
Russian invaders’ ‘court’ sentences Ukrainian to 12. 5 years for patriotism
Iryna Sukhodei
Three unnamed victims
Russia stages terror arrests in occupied Zaporizhzhia oblast for donations to Ukraine’s Armed Forces
