Yulia Koveshnikova
- Criminal Code
- Article 276, Russian Criminal Code
- Verdict
- Imprisonment (general regime)
- Sentence
- 13 years
- Date of verdict
- 2024-06-10
- Region
- Occupied territory of Zaporizka oblast
- Facility
- ФКУ «ИК № 15 УФСИН России по Самарской области»
- Address for letters
- 443047, Самарская обл., г. Самара, ул. Утевская,18 «А», ФКУ «ИК № 15 УФСИН России по Самарской области», Ковешникова Юлия Александровна, 1978 г.р.
Recognition by human rights organisations
- Recognised as a political prisonerby Memorial: Support for Political Prisoners, 7 April 2025
This is the assessment of the organisation named above, not ours. FACTUM reports it with attribution and does not make its own.
Case summary
Ukrainian citizen, wife of a military officer. On 8 April 2023, she was kidnapped in Melitopol (occupied part of the territory of Zaporizhzhya region). A case of espionage was brought against her. Initially she was kept in a temporary detention centre in Melitopol; according to her, she was kept in a pit and forced to learn by heart the anthems of the Russian Federation, the self-proclaimed DNR and LNR, the USSR, as well as a certain "new" anthem of Ukraine. In her letters, Koveshnikova said that she was starved, thirsty and kept in darkness for a long time. She was later transferred to a pre-trial detention centre in Mariupol (an occupied part of Ukraine's Donetsk region) and then to a pre-trial detention centre in Simferopol. On 11 June 2024, Koveshnikova was sentenced to 13 years in a general regime colony on charges of espionage.
Others charged under Article 276, Russian Criminal Code
What we write about political persecution
Recent material from this section. This is section navigation — the articles below are not about this person.
- 2026-09-04Georgia court clears extradition of Fugal ally to Russia
- 2026-09-04Russia labels Novaya Gazeta a 'foreign agent,' adds over 100 affiliated names
- 2026-09-04Russian court sentences hostage-takers from Rostov detention center to up to 29 years
- 2026-09-04Two Yabloko Duma candidates detained in Moscow two days before vote
- 2026-09-03British man says Russian police beat him, jumped on his head at station in Yessentuki
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.