The Russian occupation ‘Zaporizhzhia regional court’ has sentenced a pensioner from Dniprorudne to 12 years’ maximum-security imprisonment for a donation, of around 20 euros, to Ukraine’s Armed Forces. For supporting his country, 63-year-old Vitaliy Ilyin received a sentence ten years longer than that passed by the same illegal ‘court’ against a person convicted of two burglaries.
Vitaliy Ilyin, who was born on 12 November 1962, was 59 when the Russians invaded his Ukrainian homeland. He is believed to have been seized in December 2024 with the aggressor state using the fact that he took Russian citizenship in September 2023 as excuse to charge him with ‘state treason’ under Article 275 of Russia’s criminal code. While effectively acknowledging that Ilyin did not take a Russian passport out of support for Russia, the ‘court’ was silent about Russia’s coercion which involves, among other things, making it impossible to get healthcare or retain one’s own home without Russian documents.
Ilyin was ‘accused’ of having, in June 2024 made a donation, via a Ukrainian banking app on his phone, of one thousand UAH (just under 20 euros) for Ukraine’s Armed Forces. In trying to justify the ‘treason’ charges, the occupation ‘court’ states that “the money was used to buy weapons, ammunition, uniforms and equipment for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, opposing the Russian Federation in the conditions of SMO” [the so-called ‘special military operation’]. What this formulation ignores is that the money was to help Ukraine’s defenders fight Russian invaders whose ‘SMO’ was, in fact, a war of aggression against Ukraine.
Ilyin was sentenced by this illegitimate ‘court’ to 12 years in the appalling conditions of a maximum-security prison colony, with a further one year of restricted liberty, were the 63-year-old to survive such a monstrous sentence.
As always, there is a near total lack of information. It is not clear whether there were any hearings aside from that at which the sentence was passed, nor whether Ilyin had an independent lawyer. All of these supposed ‘trials’ take place behind closed doors, with the outcome differing only in the size of the sentence.
Although the sentence is not final and can be appealed, the only, very remote, chance would be that the term of imprisonment might be slightly increased. It could, however, be increased, as happened recently with respect to Halyna Bekhter who is 68 and had been sentenced to 11 years; imprisonment for donating the equivalent of around 14 euros to Ukraine’s Armed Forces. That sentence was passed on 5 March 2026 by ‘judge’ Valery Valerievich Zmeyev, a Russian citizen illegally deployed in Russia’s occupation ‘Zaporizhzhia regional court’. He also ordered that her mobile phone be confiscated and, presumably, sold to obtain the 1240 roubles, or 14 euros, which Halyna had donated to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
The appeal against that sentence was lodged by the prosecutor who had demanded a 16-year sentence against a woman who is not far off 70. By the time of the appeal hearing before Russia’s First court of appeal on 6 July 2026 it had become clear that there were very grave concerns about Halyna Bekhter’s state of mental, and probably physical, health. They were ignored, and the ‘court’ added a further 18 months, meaning a sentence of 12.5 years.
In both of the above cases, as well as against many other pensioners whom the Russian occupiers are hunting down and imprisoning, it seems extremely unlikely that they would survive the sentences opposed.
See also:
Mykola Tynkov (b.1955)
10-year sentence for love of Ukraine against 71-year-old pensioner under Russian occupation
Svitlana Loi (b. 1956)
Russia sentences 70-year-old pensioner from occupied Tokmak to 15 years for supporting Ukraine
Ivan Chorny (b. 1954)
Pensioners and mothers targeted for Russia’s ‘treason trial’ terror in occupied Ukraine
Iryna Sukhodei (b. 4.07.1960)
Maryna Bilousova (b. 1964)
Russia sentences 61-year-old Ukrainian to 12.5 years for donation to Ukraine’s defenders
Serhiy Chebukin (b. 1 July 1963)
60-year-old Serhiy Shtyrov
60-year-old from Russian-occupied Donbas sentenced to 13 years for donations to Ukraine’s defenders
Larysa Bieliaieva (b. 10.02.1960)
The above are only those political prisoners already aged over 60. The list of horrific donations against men and women for supporting Ukraine’s defenders or Ukrainian charities is much greater, and increasing all the time.
