The Russian occupation ‘Crimean high court’ has sentenced a couple from Yalta to 17 and 15 years for supposedly ‘spying for Ukraine’. Although almost everything about such ‘trials’ is kept secret, even down to the defendants’ names, Crimean Tribunal believes it likely that the woman is Krystyna Markova, who was seized on her way to work on 23 July 2024.
If this is correct, and the scant details available do match what is known about Markova, then concern about this latest ‘trial’ and the huge sentences passed is only exacerbated. Krystyna Markova, who was born on 6 March 1990 in Odesa oblast, was seized on the street by FSB officers on 23 July 2024. Over the following eight months, her family and friends knew nothing about her whereabouts, nor indeed whether she was still alive. It has since become clear that she had been held all of that time, incommunicado and without any charges being laid, at SIZO [remand prison] No. 2 in occupied Simferopol. SIZO-2 is believed to have been under the full control of the FSB even before retrograde measures were pushed through to allow for such control. It is known to be used for political prisoners, including the very many, like Markova, that Russia’s FSB hold for a long time, and likely torture, without any procedural status. Markova has since been able to pass on information that she was forced, at the beginning of April 2025, to sign documents claiming that she had only just been ‘arrested’ and accused of working for Ukraine’s Security Service [SBU]. She was, presumably, formally ‘remanded in custody’, in April or May 2025 with the first information posted in June 2025. Periods where a person is held incommunicado and without an independent lawyer are particularly dangerous, with the FSB typically using torture, threats, including to members of a person’s family, etc. to extract whatever ‘confessions’ they demand. It is near certain that Markova’s partner, who is described as 39 and originally from Orenburg oblast in Russia, was also the victim of an enforced disappearance, rather than a formal arrest.
Nothing more was heard until February 2026 when Russian and occupation sources reported that the indictment against “two Ukrainian agents” had been passed to the occupation ‘Crimean high court’. Then, as is almost always the case, the next information was of the sentences having been passed, on 20 May 2026. There had effectively been no hearings, with six scheduled hearings adjourned either because of “the non-appearance of witnesses” or “due to other grounds for adjournment”. Then, on 19 May it was announced that the “court had withdrawn to pass sentence”, with ‘judge’ Victor Sklyarov, returning less than 24 hours later to hand down huge sentences. Sklyarov is wanted in Ukraine on treason charges for betraying his oath and working for the occupying regime. He has already ‘served’ the latter on many occasions by handing down politically motivated sentences.
The 39-year-old man was convicted of ‘treason’, under Article 275 of Russia’s criminal code, while Markova (if it is her) was convicted of ‘spying’, under Article 276. The difference in charge is essentially dependent solely on whether the person has Russian citizenship. This, in turn, means little in real terms as Russia has deliberately made it near impossible to survive without taking a Russian passport. He was sentenced to 17 years’ maximum-security imprisonment, followed by a 20 month term of restricted liberty. His partner received a 15-year sentence with this in a medium-security prison colony (the harshest available against women).
It was claimed that, since he opposed Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, the man had, in 2024, contacted “a representative of Ukraine’s Security Service” and informed of his willingness to help “foreign intelligence service in activities against Russia”. He supposedly received instructions from his ‘handler’ to provide information about weapons and military technology in Yalta and got his partner involved in this. He was alleged to have, in July 2024, taken photos of military technology, while she was claimed to have videoed military boats, with the gathered information sent to “the representative of a foreign state” [sic] via a Telegram channel used by Ukraine’s Security Service.
Crimean Process notes that here, as is almost always the case, ‘the court’ makes exceptions to the overall secrecy with the FSB and press service given full access. There is even a video made available of the defendants in a cage during the final (or only) ‘hearing’. According to such propaganda media reports, the FSB claimed that the couple videoed the Russian Black Fleet military technology in the Port in Yalta and passed it “to the Ukrainian side” to guide missile strikes. Any Russian military boats, technology and military personnel in occupied Yalta would be legitimate targets, however all such indictments are suspiciously similar and it is just as possible that Krystyna Markova and her partner were seized for pro-Ukrainian views, with charges fabricated while the two were held incommunicado.
