Elderly Ukrainian woman jailed for 15 years by Russian occupying authorities for donating money to Ukrainian armed forces

Svitlana Loi, a 69-year-old pensioner from the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Tokmak, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for donating money to Ukraine's Armed Forces. The sentence was handed down by the "Zaporizhzhia Oblast Court", a sham institution set up by the Russian occupying authorities.

Source: the "Zaporizhzhia Oblast Court" on social media

Details: Loi was born in 1956 and lives in temporarily Russian-occupied Tokmak. She acquired Russian citizenship in December 2023, but did not renounce her Ukrainian citizenship.

Between January and November 2024 she regularly transferred money to support Ukraine's Armed Forces via the mobile app of a Ukrainian bank.

She made 24 transfers totalling RUB 63,420 (US$821). She donated the funds, which were transferred in Ukrainian hryvnias out of her pension payments, because she believed she had the right to use the money in her Ukrainian bank account to support Ukraine's Armed Forces.

Loi was charged with treason under Article 275 of Russia's Criminal Code, specifically with "providing financial assistance to a foreign country and engaging in activities directed against the security of the Russian Federation".

She was found guilty by the "Zaporizhzhia Oblast Court" and sentenced to 15 years in a general-regime penal colony, with a further restriction period of one year.

Background: Russian forces have turned schools in temporarily occupied Luhansk Oblast into bases for their military operations, forcing children to attend ideological classes and watch videos of captured Ukrainian soldiers.

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