Russian National Receives 12-Year Sentence for Minor Donation to Ukrainian Forces

A court in Russia’s Sverdlovsk region has handed a 12-year sentence to a man for contributing approximately $25 to the Ukrainian military, as reported by the independent news site Mediazona on Monday.

Prosecutors claimed that Yevgeny Varaksin, a 27-year-old resident of the closed city of Lesnoy, sent 100 Polish zlotys to “support the Armed Forces of Ukraine” during a trip to Poland in April 2022.

He was found guilty of high treason after a trial that took place behind closed doors, according to Mediazona.

In addition to the lengthy prison term, the Sverdlovsk Regional Court imposed a fine of 300,000 rubles (approximately $3,650) on Varaksin and mandated 1.5 years of probation.

The state prosecutor indicated that Varaksin partially acknowledged his culpability.

The presiding judge, Andrei Mineyev, previously sentenced Evan Gershkovich, a journalist with the Wall Street Journal and former reporter for the Moscow Times, to 16 years in prison on espionage charges. Gershkovich was released in August 2024 as part of a significant prisoner swap involving Moscow and Western nations.

Judge Mineyev noted that Varaksin was unemployed; however, Mediazona reported that he was employed by Kombinat Elektrokhimpribor, part of the state nuclear corporation Rosatom’s nuclear weapons complex, in 2022.

The number of treason cases and convictions in Russia has dramatically increased since the onset of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The independent investigative organization IStories stated that 145 Russian citizens were convicted of treason last year, which is nearly four times higher than the total convictions in 2023 and represents the highest figure in contemporary Russian history, according to their report.