Russian Court Sentences Ukrainian Teacher Valentina Zayarnaya to 12 Years on Terrorism Charges
Updated
Updated · The New Yorker · Aug 17
Russian Court Sentences Ukrainian Teacher Valentina Zayarnaya to 12 Years on Terrorism Charges
1 articles · Updated · The New Yorker · Aug 17
Summary
A Russian court gave 64-year-old English teacher Valentina Zayarnaya 12 years in prison in December 2025 after convicting her as an accomplice to terrorism.
Prosecutors said she sheltered Ukrainian lieutenant colonel Denys Storozhuk and helped retrieve a package allegedly containing explosives; Zayarnaya said she did not know his true identity and that her confession was coerced.
Zayarnaya told the court F.S.B. officers beat her son and threatened to send him to a mental hospital unless she testified as required; after signing, she attempted suicide with blood-pressure pills.
Her case sits within Russia's broader prosecution of Ukrainians from occupied territory: at least 1,300 civilians have been formally charged, while more than 10,000 others are believed to have disappeared into detention.
Ukraine says such civilians should be released, not exchanged, but only about 430 have been freed since 2022, far fewer than the more than 9,000 Ukrainian soldiers returned in nearly 80 swaps.
Why are thousands of Ukrainian civilians vanishing into a shadow prison network, and what makes their rescue almost impossible?
Could the secret to freeing forgotten women lie hidden within the very terrorism charges used to trap them?
"Systematic Persecution: The Case of Valentina Zayarnaya and the Imprisonment of Over 1,300 Ukrainian Civilians in Russian-Occupied Territories (2022–2026)"
Overview
Valentina Zayarnaya, a retired teacher from Russian-occupied Ukraine, was arrested by FSB officers in Donetsk and later sentenced to 12 years in prison by a Russian military court on terrorism charges. Her confession was obtained after FSB agents beat her son and threatened him with psychiatric detention, leading her to attempt suicide from the trauma. Russia classifies civilians like Zayarnaya as criminals, not combatants, making prisoner exchanges nearly impossible. The FSB’s control over detention facilities has increased, and similar fabricated cases have targeted journalists and activists, drawing EU sanctions after deaths in custody. Zayarnaya’s ordeal highlights a broader system of repression and legal abuse in occupied Ukraine.