Sentences of 10 to 16 years: How Russia is persecuting occupied Ukrainians for "espionage"

The Kherson woman was supposed to be in Moscow until April 10, after which she was scheduled to be transferred to a detention center in Simferopol, said Irina's father, Volodymyr Gorobtsov. In a letter to her father, she wrote that before the meeting she had been in Krasnodar, from there she was transferred to Rostov-on-Don, and then to Moscow.

Who is Irina Gorobtsova and why was she detained by Russian security forces?

Who else from Kherson has been convicted in Russia for alleged "espionage"? Under what circumstances were these people captured and where are they now?

What are the difficulties in returning civilians from captivity and is there a way out of this situation?

All this is written about in the Radio Liberty project "News from the Azov Region".

Before the full-scale Russian invasion, Irina Gorobtsova lived in Kherson and worked in an IT company.

When the occupation of the city began, she helped the local hospital. She brought doctors from remote areas, searched for and transported food, medicine and bandages, and also delivered medicine to seriously ill people in remote settlements of the Kherson region.

Irina participated in rallies against the Russian occupation, which were then held in Kherson, and posted photos from these rallies on social networks.

On May 13, 2022, on the activist's birthday, Russian military officers drove up to the house where Gorobtsova lived with her parents, searched their apartment and took Irina away.

The parents had no further contact with their daughter and decided to contact the Russian occupation administration in Kherson. There they were informed that their daughter had been taken to occupied Crimea.

In the summer of 2024, the occupation Regional Court in Kherson sentenced the activist to 10 years and six months in prison.

Shortly before her arrest, even before the full Russian invasion, she was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm, a condition that required medical attention. In December 2024, Irina received a letter from captivity in which she spoke of her deteriorating condition and lack of medical care at the detention center in Simferopol, where she was detained.

 

"I was annoyed by the Ukrainian flag"

 

Irina's father, Volodymyr Gorobtsov, told Novosti from Azov the circumstances under which the Russian military detained his daughter.

"11 people, all in uniform, with machine guns, came to our apartment, we let them in because they said: 'If you don't let them in, we'll break down the door.'" They had a big sledgehammer with a crowbar, so they could do it easily, so we let them in. Six people entered with an officer.

They walked through the rooms. In the room where our daughter Irinka was working, there was a Ukrainian flag hanging on the TV. They were very uncomfortable, they immediately grabbed it and started running around the apartment, looking for something. Nothing was found. They stayed with us for about 10 minutes," the man recalls those events.

According to him, people in military uniforms checked their phones, documents and took two laptops and his daughter's personal phone.

After that, there was no information about Irina's whereabouts for some time, her father says. It was later learned that she was being held in detention in Crimea. The husband and his wife went there to find out at least something about their daughter, but to no avail.  

"We didn't have internet for a month, and when he came back, I found the answer that came to us from the Crimean FSB. That she was in custody because she was "obstructing the implementation of the 'SVO' and that she will remain in custody until the 'SVO' is finished". I have written there many times and received the same answers that there is no threat to her life or health and that it is impossible to give other information, because it is a state secret. That's all. We hired a lawyer, he looked for her there.

We knew he was in Simferopol, we went there, but we didn't achieve anything. "We went to the FSB office. No one spoke to us there. The policeman on duty just told us to go home and that he would write to us later. After that, there was no contact for two years," says this Kherson resident.

In March last year, Russian "investigative actions" began, and then Irina managed to write a letter, says Volodymyr. The parents realized that their daughter was under psychological pressure.

 

"She confirmed that they found her phone, that it was her data, and that they found the photos she was sending there. In addition, she wrote something on Facebook, which she confirmed. So, all of this contributed to the 10.5-year sentence. The verdict remained the same after the appeal hearing on April 1. They sent us her photo - she lost 20 kilograms during that time. Of course, it was difficult with food in Simferopol, but she says that the conditions in Moscow are better," Volodymyr said.

Gorobtsov added that Irina is on the Ukrainian exchange list, but Russia does not confirm that the woman is in captivity. It is also currently unknown where exactly she will serve her sentence.

 

"16 years in a maximum security prison"

 

The story of Irina Gorobtsova is no exception.

Mikola Petrovsky is also from Kherson, who was illegally convicted in Russia for alleged "espionage". The man has a disability. Despite this, when the occupation of the city began, he actively engaged in volunteer activities.

"He is missing part of his leg, it was replaced with a prosthesis." My son's injury occurred before the full invasion in a car accident. He had never served in the army, he had never held a weapon in his hands. During the occupation of Kherson, despite his disability, he remained in the city.

He helped people: he delivered food, bread and water to those in need. He helped evacuate people, risking his life. He is a very kind, sincere and sensitive person.

"He is a devoted patriot of his homeland. And because of this, on March 27, on my birthday, my son was kidnapped by the Russian army," said Lyubov Petrovskaya, the young man's mother.

After Mikola was kidnapped, his family did not know where he was for half a year. Finally, at the end of September 2022, a Russian lawyer called them and said that their son was in a detention center in occupied Simferopol and that he was accused of "espionage".

"On February 13, 2024, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation illegally sentenced him to 16 years in prison in a maximum security colony. After that, the

staging began. It was a very difficult period. We didn't know where he was," the woman says.

 

According to her, it was only two months later that they learned that their son was in a colony in Russia. She reported that her son’s health was deteriorating every day. This is due to the lack of medical care, rehabilitation and nursing, Petrovskaya believes.

“Before the war, my son was diagnosed with Staphylococcus aureus. He constantly has ulcers and abscesses all over his body. His temperature rises. And this can lead to blood poisoning. This is very dangerous. His prosthesis is damaged – it is broken. Because of this, the prosthesis is pressing on his leg, wounds are forming, he cannot walk, he cannot sit, he cannot lie down because of ulcers and abscesses,” the mother explains.

 

Ukrainian institutions that care for prisoners have recorded information about Mykola Petrovsky, but the Russian side does not confirm this, the mother added.

"His leg is now dying, he has a stomach ulcer, and they are not providing him with medical care. I don't know what to do. He has a damaged ear canal, he has poor hearing and poor vision. My son is a civilian. A disabled person, with serious illnesses. I don't know how long he can last. Every day my husband and I wait for the day when our son will return to us, but I don't know if we will see that day and if our son will return alive," admits the mother of a resident of Kherson.

 

Roman Sushchenko's experience

 

Roman Sushchenko is a Ukrainian journalist and former political prisoner who was also illegally arrested and convicted in Russia for alleged "espionage." In the fall of 2016, the man traveled to Moscow on private business. There, he was detained by Russian security forces.

The journalist told Novosti from Azov that after the first court hearing, he was transferred to the Lefortovo detention center in Moscow. Irina Gorobtsova, a resident of Kherson, also spent some time there. He was also offered cooperation in the investigation.

"I saw the camera in the corridor, so I understood that if I agreed, they would demand that I gossip about my colleagues, that I speak badly about the Ukrainian authorities, representatives of various institutions and diplomats. I was clearly aware that such an action was being prepared. Accordingly, I refused.

Several times I witnessed the suicide of some prisoners in neighboring cells. They were under very intense pressure there. Of course, this affected the staff, all the prisoners," Sushchenko recalls.

 

The journalist said that Lefrtovo had a practice of changing cellmates who could cooperate with the SIZO administration. These people transmitted all the conversations and data about his behavior, which then became part of his case.

 

"The level of violence increased many times over"

 

Roman Sushchenko was sentenced to 12 years in prison. In October 2018, he was transferred to maximum security prison No. 11 in the Kirov region of Russia. The conditions there were harsh, but now Ukrainian prisoners are treated much worse, the journalist says.

 

"There was constant psychological pressure from the prisoners, from the guards, from the administration. They asked who the Banderaites were and whether you were for them or not. I replied that the people from Bender are residents of the city of Bender, and Stepan Andriyovich's surname is Bandera. Of course, all this angered them."

 

The so-called BM - a secure place in the remand prison, in different cells did not differ from the cells of the remand prison. Rats were running around, there were no sanitary conditions, and it was very, very cold. In October, the temperature there approaches zero, and in November there is already snow, outside it can be 30 degrees below zero, and in the cell +13.

“Given my own experience of being in places of deprivation of liberty in the Russian Federation between 2016 and 2019, I cannot compare the situation, the means of influence and the violence that existed at that time with those that are happening now. We know thousands of testimonies of our prisoners of war, detained civilians who manage to get here. The level of violence has increased many times and is incomparable,” says Sushchenko.

Roman Sushchenko returned home on September 7, 2019. Then Ukraine and Russia carried out an exchange, which resulted in the release of 11 Ukrainian prisoners illegally convicted in Russia. Also at that time, 24 sailors captured by Russia in the Kerch Strait area in November 2018 were returned to Ukraine.

"An Unusual Number of 'Spies'"

 

The head of the ZMINA Human Rights Center, Tetyana Pechonchik, told Novosti from Azov that, according to the organization's estimates, five to six thousand Ukrainian citizens are being illegally tried or have already been convicted in Russia on fabricated charges. Among them are those accused of alleged "espionage."

"If we talk about cases of "espionage," then we have some information on the example of occupied Crimea. Over the past two years, 74 reports of the detention of "spies," "saboteurs," or "extremists" have been recorded in Crimea. And in this context, the number of "spies" seems anomalous. In general, we can say that "spy mania" now reigns in Crimea and other occupied territories, "she says.

The occupiers are trying to see in every Ukrainian who is disloyal or appears to be such a "spy" or "saboteur," Pechonchik noted.

During Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, 52 cases of “espionage” and “treason” were heard in Crimean courts. By comparison, during the entire period of occupation before the full invasion, there were only seven such cases. That is, we see how much these numbers are growing,” she noted.

 

How to release?

 

A significant number of “espionage” cases are being heard in the Rostov-on-Don court, the human rights activist reported. Ukrainians usually receive quite significant sentences - from 10 to 18 years in prison.

“For example, in February of this year, Anna Yeltsova, a student from Kherson who was arrested by the occupiers in December 2022, was convicted. For a long time, there was no information about her. She was kept in complete isolation in a detention center in Simferopol for almost two years. And in February, the student was found guilty of “espionage” and sentenced to 10 years in prison,” Pechonchik cited as an example.

It is very difficult to obtain information about such cases, because they are resolved behind closed doors, she explains. There is also no legal mechanism for the return of civilian prisoners.

A way out of this situation could be to divide this category of citizens into groups and further communicate about the release of each of these groups from captivity, the human rights activist believes.

"Groups (of captured Ukrainian civilians) can be distributed among Ukraine's partner countries, so that each country is responsible for its own small group of

citizens and together with Ukraine demands their release, exerts pressure, tells the stories of these people, recalls their names," Pechonchik explains.

If we start exchanging Russian prisoners of war who are held here for Ukrainian civilians, this actually leads to "human trafficking," she says.

"Because Russia now occupies 1/5 of Ukrainian territory. And there could be between 3.5 and five million Ukrainian citizens living there. Therefore, nothing prevents the Russian Federation, after exchanging a certain part of these civilians who are already in captivity, from then arresting and imprisoning thousands or tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians. And we will never have so many Russian prisoners of war that we could secure an exchange," the human rights activist emphasized.

The Commissioner for Human Rights of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Dmytro Lubinets, reported at the end of last year that more than 16,000 Ukrainian civilians are in Russian captivity. Less than 200 people managed to return. Lubinec noted that the exchange of civilian prisoners for military prisoners is not provided for by international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions.