Occupied Luhansk resident Kateryna Korovina imprisoned in Russia for an alleged donation to the Ukrainian Armed Forces
A court in Rostov-on-Don, the Southern District Military Court, has sentenced Kateryna Korovina, a resident of the Luhansk region, to 10 years of imprisonment for allegedly transferring funds to the benefit of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), as reported by the Russian media outlet, “Mediazona.”
Kateryna Korovina. Photo: MediazonaThe occupying forces detained Korovina, a 28-year-old resident of the village of Pishchane in the Luhansk region, on the morning of March 19th, 2024, while she was on her way to a pharmacy.
She was put into a car where an FSB captainі named Maksym was waiting, and he immediately confiscated her phone. On her mobile device, he found a photograph that inadvertently captured military equipment, which Korovina had not sent to anyone. Despite this, she was taken to a so-called police station.
The occupying forces repeatedly questioned her about her attitude towards the war and the occupation of the region. At the station, the Russians gained access to her application for the State Savings Bank of Ukraine, Oshchadbank, where FSB officer Maksym discovered two transactions that he “interpreted” as financing for “Right Sector,” “Aidar,” and “Azov”—Ukrainian military formations.
During hours of interrogation, Korovina repeatedly explained that she had no understanding of the structure of the AFU and that any small donations she made were exclusively for humanitarian purposes. The security officer did not believe her and pressured her to sign a protocol. Ultimately, bank transfers amounting to several hundred hryvnias became the basis for charges of financing “terrorism and extremism.”
One of Korovina’s letters from Russian captivity. Photo: MediazonaThe Russians recorded a propaganda video in which Korovina “confessed” her guilt, reading text from a piece of paper held in front of her. Such “confession videos” are often recorded by Russian security forces under duress or after torture, as ZMINA has reported in detail.
On the day of her detention, Korovina was taken home for a search. Her brother, Kostyantyn Dyachenko, was at the woman’s house and also drew the attention of the occupiers. Following this, Korovina was forced to attend interrogations for several months and was unable to leave her village before being detained again.
During the trial, the accused repeatedly retracted her testimony, explaining that she had given it under physical and psychological pressure. Korovina concluded her final statement with a poem titled “Horror in My Home.”
She wrote the poem while imprisoned in cell number 105 of Rostov Pre-trial Detention Center No. 1.
This case follows a similar instance where Oleksandr Makarov, a 73-year-old resident of the Zaporizhzhia region, was sentenced by the Russians to 14 years for allegedly transferring 15,000 hryvnias to Ukrainian special services.
