A Ukrainian court sentenced a woman to 14 years in prison on Friday for collaborating with Russia’s intelligence agencies by producing false reports to justify Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Since the February 2022 invasion, Kyiv has charged thousands with collaborating with Russia. Cases have ranged from individuals providing military intelligence to Russian forces to local officials in occupied territories working for Moscow-installed administrations. Additionally, Ukraine has arrested several individuals accused of espionage or activities undermining national security.
Prosecutors, who did not name the woman, stated she was the head of a human rights NGO and was convicted of treason. They said she “received an assignment from Russian curators” and drafted a letter intended to support Russia’s justification for its military aggression.
“The defendant wrote that the people of Ukraine support the so-called special operation of the Russian Federation in Ukraine, that looting, murder, robbery had begun in Ukraine, and that politicians were officially calling for ‘killing Russians’,” the Kyiv prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
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The letter was read at the United Nations by Vasily Nebenzya, Russia’s permanent representative, as part of Moscow’s justification for the invasion.
Russia has claimed its military actions aim to protect ethnic Russians and Russian speakers in Ukraine while seeking to “demilitarise” and “denazify” the country.
Kyiv and Western nations have consistently rejected these claims, describing the invasion as an imperial-style war of aggression by Moscow.
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