On the territories of Ukraine temporarily occupied by Russia people are kidnapped and tried as “spies” and “traitors”. Among them – residents of Kherson region.
This is written by the publication “Important Stories”.
Over three years of Russian occupation of parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson regions, occupation courts handed down at least 190 sentences for “state treason”, “espionage” and “confidential cooperation” with foreigners to local residents.
Thus, for «espionage» and «state treason» they tried Kherson resident Iryna Horobtsova. Her occupiers kidnapped her in May 2022 on her birthday. The occupation court sentenced Iryna to 10.5 years of imprisonment.
Also, a sentence from the occupation court was received by 21-year-old student of Kherson State University Hanna Yeltsova. The girl was kidnapped by the occupiers from her grandmother’s house in the village of Ahaimany in November 2022, and in February 2025 she was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment.
Additionally, in the winter of 2025 in Kherson region the occupiers sentenced 32-year-old Olena Danylenko, a mother of many children from the village of Dem’yanivka in Kherson region, to 12.5 years of imprisonment. Olena has four underage children — the youngest of them is 5 years old.
The occupation court convicted Danylenko and her close brother, 24-year-old Oleh Rashchupkin, under the article on state treason. According to the investigation, they collected data on the movement of Russian military equipment and troops and passed it to Ukrainian intelligence services, the article says.
The publication also reports that among the convicted 28 % are women and at least 8 are teenagers, the average length of their punishment is 13.5 years. From July to September 2025, sentences under the articles “espionage” and “treason” were handed down every three days, and at least 5 of the kidnapped died in captivity.
Earlier MOST reported about the release from Russian captivity in August this year of the former mayor of Kherson Volodymyr Mykolayenko, and we also wrote about the former mayor’s three years in captivity, about how the Russians tried to persuade him to co-operate, about intimidation, threats and an information vacuum.