Mariupol teenager sentenced to 7 years for supposed ‘treason’ against Russia in supporting Ukraine

Russia has used an illegitimate ‘court’ in occupied Donbas to sentence 18-year-old Oleksandr Syrov to seven years on extraordinarily cynical ‘treason’ charges based on alleged actions when the young lad from Mariupol was still underage.  Very unusually, the teenager was convicted of both ‘treason’ under Article 275 of Russia’s criminal code, and of ‘spying’ under Article 276.  The charges in both case were identical, with the mixture of both articles explained as being because Oleksandr had supposedly begun ‘spying’ while having only Ukrainian citizenship.  Russia has made it impossible to live on occupied territory without taking a Russian passport, with such enforced Russian citizenship then used as the excuse for accusing Oleksandr of ‘treason’ against Russia for supporting his own country.

The sentence was passed by the Russian occupation ‘Donetsk people’s republic high court’ on 31 July 2025.  Mediazona reports that the ‘case’ had only arrived at the ‘court’ on 22 July, with sentence passed after one hearing. There is nothing to suggest that Oleksandr had an independent lawyer, and the lack of any hearings is very likely because the lad was either tortured or terrorized into ‘admitting guilt’.  The propaganda video, probably circulated by Russia’s FSB in occupied Donetsk, shows around five hefty and armed men walking up the stairs to Oleksandr’s apartment, bursting in and pinning the evidently unarmed and terrified young lad to the wall.  His ‘arrest’ took place in January 2025, when he may well have still been 17.  Oleksandr is then shown in the ‘court’, where, in response to questions from a faceless voice, he states that he did not take any money for the alleged ‘spying’. While accusing Ukrainians of ‘spying’ for their own country, Russia’s FSB has generally tried to present any such activities as having been under coercion or for money, so it is, perhaps, significant that Oleksandr firmly denies any such motive.

The fact that he does not appear to have denied the charges means little, given the methods that Russia’s FSB use.  Even if he was not tortured, and the FSB would not necessarily have been stopped by his age, he would certainly have been threatened with a huge sentence if he did not ‘confess’ and was, almost certainly, held incommunicado for a long time.  It is difficult to take charges seriously that are essentially copy-pasted from one ‘trial’ to another.  Oleksandr is alleged to have worked for Ukraine’s Security Service [SBU], gathering and passing on information about the places of deployment of Russia’s Rosgvardia units in occupied Mariupol. Nothing more is known as the supposed ‘trial’ was held behind closed doors (as they always are) with the claim being that this was because they contained ‘state secrets’.

The 7-year sentence could have been much worse, with it claimed that the size (as well as the fact that it is in a medium-security prison colony, rather than the harsh-regime, or maximum-security, imprisonment usually applied, was because he had been underage when he is claimed to have carried out the alleged ‘spying’. .

Oleksandr Syrov would have been 14 when Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, including its brutal bombing, shelling and effective starvation of besieged Mariupol.   He is not the only young lad from occupied territory to have been seized by the invaders and sentenced to long terms of imprisonment, essentially for supporting Ukraine.   On 17 July 2024, a Russian court sentenced 19-year-old Danylo Yefimov from occupied Snizhne (Donetsk oblast) to 12 years in a maximum-security prison colony, for having made several money transfers (around $144 in total) to the Serhiy Prytula Foundation.  The latter supports both Ukraine’s defenders and civilians suffering as the result of Russia’s aggression.   In February 2025, Ivan Semykoz was sentenced by a Russian court to 8.5 years, with the charge being of ‘financing terrorist activities’.  This was how the aggressor state described the then 19-year-old Ukrainian’s single donation to the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ Azov Regiment.