Nina Bondarenko
- Criminal Code
- Article 205.5 part 2, Russian Criminal CodeArticle 278, Russian Criminal Code
- Case category
- Terrorism cases
- Verdict
- Imprisonment (in absentia)
- Sentence
- 13 years
- Date of verdict
- 2025-03-26
- Region
- Rostov Oblast
- City
- Rostov-on-Don
Recognition by human rights organisations
- Recognised as a political prisonerby Memorial: Support for Political Prisoners, 12 January 2024
This is the assessment of the organisation named above, not ours. FACTUM reports it with attribution and does not make its own.
Case summary
From 2020 to 17 March 2022, she served in the Ukrainian special purpose regiment "Azov" as a cook with the military rank of soldier. She was captured on 17 March 2022 during fighting in Mariupol. She was accused of participation in the activities of a terrorist organisation and violent seizure and retention of power. Human rights activists noted that she was a prisoner of war and therefore should not have been held criminally liable for participation in hostilities. In addition, they consider the charges absurd.
On 13 September 2024, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Bondarenko had been returned to Ukraine as part of an exchange. On 26 March 2025, she was sentenced in absentia to 13 years in prison.
Others charged under Article 205.5 part 2, Russian Criminal Code
What we write about political persecution
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Source: this person’s record in the OVD-Info political persecution database
Published under CC BY 3.0. The criteria for treating a person as politically persecuted belong to OVD-Info; FACTUM relays their assessment and makes none of its own.
OVD-Info has been designated an «extremist» organisation in Russia — by decision of the Russian authorities, like other independent human rights and media projects.