Russian activist who helped Ukrainian refugees jailed for 22 years

A Russian activist who helped Ukrainians flee Moscow’s invasion has been sentenced to 22 years in prison on charges of treason and financing terrorism, her lawyer and Russian media said Friday.

Nadezhda Rossinskaya, who also goes by the name Nadin Geisler, ran a volunteer group called “Army of Beauties," which claims to have helped evacuate thousands of people from Russian-occupied territory — numbers that could not be independently verified.

Some made their way to free Ukraine through Russia’s southwestern Belgorod region, where the last open checkpoint between the two countries was located, the group says.

Fearing for her safety, Rossinskaya left Russia for Georgia in 2023, but decided to return to Belgorod months later to coordinate a complex evacuation, independent Russian news outlets reported.

She was detained in February 2024 over an Instagram post calling for donations to Ukrainian forces, and was later charged with treason and financing terrorism, according to Russian court documents and her lawyer Alexey Pryanishnikov.

Rossinskaya denied any wrongdoing, and her lawyer said she did not write or publish the post, according to a trial transcript compiled by Russian independent outlet Mediazona.

Prosecutors had requested an unusually harsh prison sentence of 27 years for Rossinskaya, who stood trial at a military court in Belgorod.

According to Mediazona, Rossinskaya responded by asking the court to jail her for 27 years and one day if found guilty, so that her prison term could be the longest modern Russia has ever handed to a woman.

Darya Trepova, jailed for delivering a bomb in 2023 that killed a pro-war blogger in St Petersburg, is currently serving a 27-year sentence.

Last September, Rossinskaya was added to Russia’s register of “extremists and terrorists”, alongside many individuals and groups who have publicly criticized the war, tried to raise money for Ukraine or help those affected by the fighting.

Criminal cases linked to treason, espionage and cooperation with a foreign state have risen drastically since Russia’s full-scale invasion, a Russian lawyers’ association has reported.

According to Pervy Otdel, at least 792 people went on trial on related charges between Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022 and late December 2024. Over 530 were convicted.