The verdict was reported from the courtroom by a correspondent for Ostorozhno, Novosti, and confirmed by Astra and Current Time. In addition to the prison term, Chumakova was banned from administering websites for four years and fined 200,000 rubles.
The first charge concerned nine publications by Astra and Chumakova's personal Telegram channel in the spring of 2022. Among those materials were interviews with relatives of the deceased and accounts from residents of Bucha, including the account of 14-year-old Yura Nechiporenko about the shooting of his father. The investigation claims that the residents' accounts incite hatred toward Russian servicemen.
Defense lawyer Zakhar Lebedev pointed out that the sources were the residents of Bucha and eyewitnesses themselves, and therefore the materials were not presented as facts independently established by the author.
The second charge concerns the distribution of Astra materials without the "foreign agent" label. Lebedev noted that Chumakova herself was not added to the registry — only Astra was added to the list, while the journalist was listed as a person affiliated with a "foreign agent." The requirements whose violation she is accused of did not apply to her, the lawyer said.
Chumakova has lived outside Russia for several years. In the fall of 2025, the Interior Ministry placed her on an interstate wanted list, and Rosfinmonitoring added her to its list of "extremists and terrorists." Security forces searched the home of her mother, questioned her as a witness in a case over the dissemination of military "fakes," and seized equipment.