Officers arrived at the home of Donskaya, first secretary of the Vyborg district committee of the Communist Party (KPRF), at about 6 a.m. on October 14, according to OVD-Info. They seized her phone and drew up a protocol.
According to Donskaya, the order states that she distributes materials that "discredit" the Russian army and are allegedly capable of causing mass disturbances of public order in the Leningrad Region. "They conducted a search, drew up a protocol, seized the phone — there was nothing else to take," she wrote on VKontakte.
Donskaya links the security services' actions to her public activity and personal position. She said that during the search she was shown the publications that prompted the complaints, but which posts are at issue has not been reported. Her lawyers, she told Verstka, found no signs of "discrediting" the army in the materials presented. "I assume that someone does not like my activity. It is not the first time," she said.
Donskaya said she provided the password to the seized phone voluntarily, "since there is nothing to hide." The activist was not detained but was ordered to report to investigators, her party colleague Ivan Apostolevsky, a former deputy of the Leningrad Region Legislative Assembly, told Verstka. No charges have been brought against her so far.
Apostolevsky did not rule out that the case could end in administrative proceedings. The outlet MR7, citing the deputy, reports that a criminal case over the "discrediting" of the army has been opened against Donskaya (Part 1 of Article 280.3 of the Russian Criminal Code).
The situation is paradoxical in that Donskaya publicly supports the Russian army. On the website of the regional KPRF branch she is named as a volunteer for the Severnaya Zvezda foundation, created on the initiative of serving military personnel and "veterans of the SMO" — the organization collects medical and technical supplies for units taking part in combat operations.
During a trip to the front and to occupied territories of Ukraine in 2025, Donskaya received a call sign from Russian military personnel: "And now I am 'Ugolyok.' They took the choice of call sign seriously. That is what they named me in a sniper company." In September she said she had helped make 140 medals "For the Defense of the Kinburn Spit" in order to "raise the fighting spirit" of participants in the war. According to OVD-Info, on September 30 she wrote about making medals for servicemen of the 337th Air Assault Regiment and called them "our defenders."
Alongside her party work, Donskaya is involved in environmental issues. In April 2023 she took part in a campaign against the expansion of a landfill near Vyborg and the transport of waste there from St. Petersburg. In the spring she joined a cleanup of the Gulf of Finland coast contaminated with oil products, explaining her participation by a habit of volunteering.
In September Donskaya ran for the Leningrad Region Legislative Assembly for the KPRF in Vyborg district No. 1 but lost to Mikhail Makarov, the candidate from United Russia. Following the elections, only two KPRF representatives entered the assembly, along with 44 from United Russia, three from the Liberal Democratic Party and one from New People. Donskaya herself said that "the falsifications exceeded all expectations" and complained of turnout of 30–35%.
Apostolevsky believes that what is happening to Donskaya fits a campaign of pressure on KPRF activists in the regions. "It is unpleasant that people fight for the interests of residents, but in the end this is what they get. This is very, very wrong. And I did not expect the FSB to be doing this," he said. According to him, her party colleagues intend to defend Donskaya. "No panic for now. We will fight for Angela, so that everything is all right."