Ukrainian man sentenced to 11 years in Russia for looking for his mother in occupied village

Russian outlet Mediazona reported the information.

Ivan Zabavskyi lived in Kharkiv, while his mother, Marina Zabavska, remained in the village of Tavolzhanka in the Kharkiv region after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

In September 2022, Marina's sister was killed in a Russian attack. As Russian troops neared the village, Marina decided to flee to Russia. With no communication available in Tavolzhanka, Ivan was unable to contact his mother, prompting him to travel to the village as a driver delivering humanitarian aid.

Since then, he disappeared, and the village came under Russian occupation. Neighbors told Marina Zabavska that they saw Russian soldiers taking her son away.

Only in May 2023 did the Russian Ministry of Defense respond to Zabavska, stating that her son was in Russia and had been detained "for opposing the special military operation." According to Mediazona, this phrasing is often seen in correspondence between Russian military and the relatives of Ukrainian civilian hostages.

In the summer of 2024, the court began hearing Zabavskyi's case under the espionage charge. The trial was held in closed session, and the details of the accusations remain unknown. In closing arguments, the prosecutor requested a 13-year prison sentence for the Ukrainian.

• The so-called Supreme Court of the Donetsk People’s Republic "sentenced" Georgian Nikolos Berianidze, who fought in the ranks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, to life imprisonment.