Ukrainian Sumo Champion Sentenced to 12 Years for Aiding Russia

A court has sentenced a former Ukrainian athlete from Crimea for aiding the aggressor state. She was sentenced in absentia to 12 years in prison with confiscation of property.

According to the Office of the Prosecutor General, the convict is a former European and world sumo champion who began competing in the Russian national team in 2016. In 2023, she founded and headed a volunteer movement in Crimea, organizing fundraising to purchase diesel generators, radios, thermal imagers and other resources for the Russian military, which took part in hostilities against Ukraine, in particular in Bakhmut. She actively disseminated information about these collections in Telegram and on her personal social media pages.

In addition, the convicted person repeatedly appeared in pro-Russian propaganda media, spreading narratives supporting the Russian army and "the defense of the peninsula from the Armed Forces of Ukraine".

The Prosecutor General's Office does not name the athlete, but judging by the photos, it is a sumo wrestler Olga Davydko.

38-year-old Olga Davydko is the first heavyweight sumo world champion in the history of Ukraine, as well as a participant in the reality show "Weighed and Happy" on STB TV in 2013.

In 2016, the athlete received Russian citizenship. In November 2023, the Prosecutor's Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea charged Olga Davydko with aiding the occupying power.

In an interview with Russian media, Davydko said that she allegedly ended her sports career in Ukraine in 2011, having gone on maternity leave, and did not understand why her former colleagues from Ukraine stopped communicating with her after she joined the Russian national team.

"When I decided to resume my sports career at the end of 2015, Crimea was already part of Russia, and I started playing for the Russian national team," the athlete commented.

Meanwhile, the Security Service of Ukraine has served a notice of suspicion to a Dzhankoy businessman who registered a business under Russian law and began supplying goods to the occupiers.

Ірина Глухова