Russia does not particularly conceal the real reason for its persecution of Ukrainians from occupied Melitopol (Zaporizhzhia oblast). In announcing the huge 13-year sentence against 47-year-old Inna Tkachenko on ‘spying’ charges, Russia’s occupation ‘Zaporizhzhia regional court’ identified Tkachenko as “T, b. 1979, and stated that “after the beginning of the special military operation, she spoke out against the SMO, and felt hatred towards the current Russian authorities, being a supporter of pro-Ukrainian ideology.”
That is, Inna Tkachenko, a Ukrainian citizen living in her own native Melitopol, remained true to her country and objected to the Russians who used tanks, bombs and terror to seize control in 2022.
She was accused of having, from May through August 2023, passed on information about places of deployment and the movements of Russian military personnel, weapons and military technology in occupied Melitopol and the surrounding area to a pro-Ukrainian Telegram channel. It is claimed that she understood that the “information she passed on could be used against the security of the Russian Federation.”
It is only the aggressor state which is claiming that Melitopol has become a ‘Russian city’. All democratic countries agree that Melitopol is Ukrainian territory, with the presence and movements of Russian military personnel and technology undoubtedly aimed against Ukraine’s security.
Since Tkachenko was charged with ‘spying’, under Article 276 of Russia’s criminal code, rather than ‘treason’ (Article 275), she had rejected Russian citizenship. This is increasingly difficult to do, with Russia using denial of property rights, healthcare, even parental rights and much more to foist its citizenship. While informing her own country’s Military Intelligence about the movements of the enemy on Ukrainian soil would not, under any circumstances, constitute ‘spying’, it is also possible that Tkachenko was subjected to closer scrutiny, perhaps detained, because of her refusal to take a Russian passport. Judging by the reports from similar ‘trials’, the FSB could then have found photos or videos on her telephone to which they objected.
There is, essentially, no way of finding out until Inna Tkachenko is safely back in free Ukraine. Russia has imposed a near total information blockade and holds all such ‘spying’ or ‘treason’ trials behind closed doors. Even the extremely limited options for learning about ‘trials’ on Russian territory are still further narrowed when it comes to occupation ‘courts’ like the so-called ‘Zaporizhzhia regional court’. It is not known who the ‘judge’ was and whether there were any earlier hearings prior to that on 27 August 2026 at which a guilty verdict was announced, together with a 13-year sentence to be served in a ‘medium-security prison colony’, the harshest in which women prisoners are held.
