Ukraine Seeks Return of 70-Year-Old Woman Jailed by Russia for 15 Years Over Army Donation — UNITED24 Media
Ukraine plans to formally appeal to Russia for the return of Svitlana Loi, a 70-year-old resident of Russian-occupied Tokmak in the Zaporizhzhia region who was sentenced to 15 years in prison over donations to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets announced the planned request during a meeting with journalists, according to hromadske.
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Lubinets said his office had been monitoring the proceedings against Loi and documented the sentence imposed by the Russian court.
“As far as we know, her entire guilt consists of the fact that she made a donation to one of the military units while physically remaining in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine,” Lubinets said.
According to the ombudsman, Ukraine intends to send requests to the Russian side seeking Loi’s return, immediate access to her, and official information about her health and the conditions in which she is being held.
“I am currently preparing such a request, and it will be sent to the Russian side tomorrow,” Lubinets said.
The planned appeal comes after a Moscow court upheld Loi’s 15-year prison sentence. According to Russian outlet Mediazona, prosecutors accused her of making 24 transfers totaling 63,420 rubles (around $735) in support of the Ukrainian Armed Forces between January and November 2024.
A Russian-controlled court in the occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region initially sentenced Loi to 15 years in prison in February. She subsequently appealed the verdict, but Moscow’s First Court of Appeal rejected the appeal and left the sentence unchanged.
Before the appeals court announced its decision, Loi began singing the Ukrainian “Song About the Towel,” based on a poem by Ukrainian poet Andrii Malyshko.
In a separate case, a Russian-controlled court in temporary occupied Berdiansk sentenced a 74-year-old woman to 14 years in prison over a UAH 1,500 (approximately $34) contribution to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
According to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty on August 26, the woman, born in 1952, was convicted of high treason after investigators alleged that she made the transfer through a Ukrainian banking app in 2024.
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