Occupants imprison 64 women from Crimea and Kherson region

In 2025, the political persecution of women in Crimea and on the territory of Russia intensified significantly. At least 64 women from Crimea, as well as Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, were detained. Many of them received harsh sentences on charges that human rights activists call politically motivated.

This is evidenced by a study by the Crimean Human Rights Group.

For example, 35-year-old Yulia Butsykina was sentenced to ten years in prison and fined 400 thousand rubles for allegedly illegally purchasing and storing explosives. Nina Tymoshenko, 66, from Sevastopol, was sentenced to 16 years in prison for "high treason," and the sentence remained in force after an appeal. Oksana Shevchenko was sentenced to ten years and fined 500,000 rubles in the case of the "assassination attempt" on the head of Crimea , Sergey Aksyonov.

The political motives of the sentences were also manifested in more absurd charges. A resident of Yalta, Lyudmila Kolesnikova, was sentenced to 17 years in prison for purchasing two NFT stamps worth 25 euros with the image of a "Russian warship". 39-year-old Nadezhda Grekova from Sevastopol was sentenced to 22 years in prison for "terrorist attack, training in terrorist activities, storage of explosives and high treason", leaving two young children with their father.

A mother and daughter from Sevastopol, Victoria and Oleksandra Strelets, were sentenced to 12 years in prison for "high treason". 26-year-old Crimean resident Alina Grek was sentenced to 15 years for "high treason and preparation of a terrorist attack ordered by Ukrainian intelligence".

Women who were abducted from the occupied Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions and temporarily transferred to Crimea received equally harsh sentences. 23-year-old Hanna Yeltsova was sentenced to 10 years in prison for "espionage" and 19-year-old Yulia Sokolova to 9 years for "espionage and high treason." Oksana Gladkikh from Melitopol region was sentenced to 14 years, but the sentence was reduced to 13 after a review. Yana Suvorova, 21, was sentenced to 14 years in prison for "cooperation with Ukrainian intelligence," and Yulia Stanika, 30, received 12.5 years for "supporting the Ukrainian military."

Older women also did not escape repression. Maryna Bilousova, 61, and Iryna Sukhovey, 65, from Zaporizhzhia region, were sentenced to 12 years and 6 months in prison for transferring funds to the Armed Forces. In total, during the year, human rights activists recorded at least 20 verdicts in politically motivated cases against women, emphasizing not only criminal charges but also the consequences for their families: children were left without mothers, women were isolated from their families and society for years.

In the occupied Crimea, the Russian authorities are also stepping up repressions against journalists, bloggers and citizen correspondents, punishing them for covering human rights violations and their anti-war stance. Since 2014, at least 17 journalists and bloggers have been illegally imprisoned.

Анна Бальчінос