In reality, through her godmother, the woman passed on military facilities coordinates to Russian intelligence services and corrected missile strikes, for which she was punished.
Russian sources are spreading news that a Ukrainian student was allegedly sentenced to 15 years in prison for correspondence with her godmother, who is in the occupied territory. The news was first published by the infamous propagandist Anatoliy Shariy, who is hiding from justice abroad. In Ukraine, he was also sentenced to 15 years with confiscation of property for high treason.
However, Shariy, and after him other pro-Kremlin propagandists, deliberately concealed other details of the story published by the Prosecutor General’s Office. The girl was sentenced not just for innocent communication with a relative. A 19-year-old resident of Zaporizhzhia region, on the instructions of Russian curators, observed Ukraine’s Security Service office and its employees, determined the location of military units and critical infrastructure facilities, and recorded the consequences of missile attacks. It was this data that she passed on to her godmother, a collaborator, who lives in the occupied territories. Law enforcement officers found the woman guilty and sentenced her to 15 years in prison for high treason committed by a group of persons in a preliminary conspiracy (Part 2 of Article 28 Part 2 of Article 111 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
As a reminder, communicating with relatives and acquaintances in the occupied territories is absolutely legal, and the legislation of Ukraine does not provide for any sanctions for this. On the contrary, the Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories Ministry advises Ukrainians who remained under occupation not to lose touch with their loved ones in the territories controlled by Ukraine. And the Digital Transformation Ministry has prepared recommendations on how to safely communicate with loved ones in the occupation: «If your relatives, friends or acquaintances are in the occupied territory, try not to discuss the movements and actions of the occupiers with them by phone or on social networks. This can endanger their lives. It is better to inform all your relatives and friends about the chatbot eVorog. This way they will be able to discreetly share valuable information about the geolocation, movements and actions of the enemy with our military».
Earlier, we have already refuted a similar claim that Ukrainians are being «arrested» and «tortured» for calling Russian phone numbers.
