Russian Teen Activist Sentenced to Nearly Three Years for Anti-War Expression

April 2025 – St. Petersburg, Russia

A 19-year-old Russian student and activist, Darya Kozyreva, has been sentenced to two years and eight months in prison for allegedly "discrediting" the Russian military through peaceful protests opposing the ongoing war in Ukraine. The verdict, delivered by a Russian court in St. Petersburg, highlights the Kremlin’s ongoing crackdown on dissent and free expression.

According to Reuters, Kozyreva was charged after staging symbolic acts of protest that included displaying Ukrainian poetry and anti-war graffiti in public spaces. Among the actions cited in court was a 2022 incident where, at just 17 years old, she spray-painted the words “Murderers, you bombed it. Judases” on a sculpture outside the Hermitage Museum — a monument symbolizing ties between St. Petersburg and Mariupol, the Ukrainian city heavily devastated during Russia’s siege in the spring of that year.

In 2024, Kozyreva continued her activism by posting online content about Ukraine, which resulted in a 30,000 rouble fine (approximately $370) and her subsequent expulsion from the medical faculty of St. Petersburg State University. On the second anniversary of the Ukraine conflict, she attached a piece of verse by Taras Shevchenko, a revered figure in Ukrainian literature, to his statue in a city park. The excerpt read:

Oh bury me, then rise ye up

And break your heavy chains

And water with the tyrants’ blood

The freedom you have gained.

Kozyreva was promptly arrested following the poetic protest and held in pre-trial detention for nearly a year before being placed under house arrest earlier this year.

Throughout her trial, Kozyreva maintained her innocence, stating in court — as reported by Mediazona, an independent Russian news outlet — that the case against her was “one big fabrication.” She declared, “I have no guilt, my conscience is clear. Because the truth is never guilty.”

Kozyreva’s conviction is part of a broader suppression of anti-war sentiment in Russia. Memorial, a Nobel Peace Prize-winning Russian human rights organization, estimates that over 230 individuals have been imprisoned for their opposition to the war.

This case underscores the increasingly hostile environment for free speech in Russia, especially among younger generations who are voicing dissent through literature, art, and digital media.

Sources: News Agencies