Crimean political prisoner Yevhen Shved, already sentenced twice, charged with “high treason”
Russian occupation authorities have brought a new charge of “high treason” against Crimean political prisoner Yevhen Shved, whom they have already sentenced twice, Vladyslav Yesypenko, a journalist and former Kremlin prisoner, reported.
Yevhen Shved (archive photo). Screenshot from a video posted on Yevhen Shved’s personal social media account“Russia’s punitive system continues its deliberate campaign to destroy Crimean political prisoner Yevhen Shved. After his previous sentence was handed down, the occupation authorities deliberately delayed his transfer to a penal colony. The reason was that Yevhen had been charged with a new, more serious offence under Article 275 (‘high treason’) of the Russian Criminal Code. As a result, the investigation will continue for at least another year,” Yesypenko wrote.
He is currently being held in the Pre-trial Detention Centre No. 2 in temporarily occupied Simferopol, which is notorious for its harsh conditions and extreme isolation.
His imprisonment has already taken a toll on his health, the journalist stressed. Prolonged solitary confinement and physical and psychological pressure have caused the man to develop neurodermatitis, a condition affecting the scalp.
For a long time, he was denied any treatment. In particular, while he was held at the Kerch penal colony, he received no medical care and was merely allowed not to shave his head, as doing so caused him unbearable pain.
Shved had previously served his entire two-and-a-half-year prison sentence. He received this “punishment” over social media posts about 9 May, which Russian law enforcement authorities classified as the “rehabilitation of Nazism”.
However, Russia’s FSB investigators found an old social media post in which he spoke approvingly of the bombing of the illegally constructed by Russian occupiers Kerch Bridge. A Russian forensic linguistic assessment concluded that this amounted to the “justification of terrorism”.
On this basis, the Second Western District Military Court handed the man a new four-year prison sentence in December 2025.
The new “high treason” offence with which the Ukrainian national has been charged is punishable by 12 to 20 years’ imprisonment or life imprisonment.
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