12 years and 530 grams

Russian court’s treason verdict in occupied Crimea separates mother from premature baby requiring lung surgery

In August 2025, a Russian court in Sevastopol sentenced 42-year-old Viktoria Strilets and her 24-year-old daughter, Alexandra, to 12 years in prison on charges of high treason. The case is classified, and little is known about its details. According to available records, the women allegedly sent photographs of Russian military installations to a Telegram channel linked to Ukraine’s military intelligence agency. The independent outlet Mediazona, drawing on letters shared by the family, has reconstructed the women’s story. Alexandra is the mother of two, including a premature infant who was in intensive care during the trial. Despite the baby’s reliance on a ventilator, the court denied a request to defer Alexandra’s sentence until the girl reaches the age of 14, citing no grounds for such leniency. Meduza summarizes the key points from Mediazona’s report.

Alexandra was born in Sevastopol. Her mother, Viktoria, married a military officer at a young age, but the family was separated following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. While Viktoria’s husband relocated to Mykolaiv with his Ukrainian unit, taking their two daughters with him, she opted to stay in Crimea to care for her mother, reasoning that “two children are a responsibility.” Over the years, she said, the situation took a “moral and financial toll,” with the family enduring a cycle of “trips, phone calls, and hopes.”

In the summer of 2017, Viktoria’s older daughter, Alexandra, returned to Sevastopol to stay with her mother while preparing for college. But that summer, Viktoria was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, requiring a specialized course of treatment every six months, consisting of two weeks of injections and IV drips. To cover the medical costs, Alexandra abandoned her college plans and found a local job. While working, she met a man named Maxim, with whom she now has two daughters. Alexandra first became pregnant in 2020, though the couple separated shortly thereafter.

The birth of Alexandra’s first child, a baby girl named Solomiya, was difficult and nearly claimed both their lives. The recovery, Alexandra said, was also “very complicated”; Solomiya was born without reflexes, and for the first year, the family was “constantly running to doctors and undergoing tests.”

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Throughout this time, Alexandra was living with her mother. She says Viktoria suffered from episodes where she would sometimes “not know where she was” or “forget where she was going.” Viktoria herself wrote that even though she was sick, she continued working. She also noted that her second, younger daughter is raising a child alone, adding to the family’s financial strain.

In March 2024, Alexandra quit her job in Sevastopol to move to Simferopol with her daughter to be with Maxim. The day before she was set to leave, she learned from family friends that her mother had been arrested.

“She was home with Solya [Solomiya] that day. I started calling her, but her line was dead,” Alexandra recalled. “I left work and drove home. When I got there, they were already done searching the place and were writing up the reports. It was okay, though — my daughter didn’t get scared.” Viktoria later wrote that she was “in shock” over the events and “didn’t know how it was going to end.” The women were taken in for interrogation separately but were released by evening.

In their letters, neither woman provides details about the charges, citing non-disclosure obligations. Following the verdict, the Sevastopol prosecutor’s office released the official account of the investigation. The authorities determined that Alexandra had “decided to engage in confidential cooperation with representatives of Ukraine against the security of the Russian Federation for financial gain” and had enlisted her mother in the effort. Prosecutors allege that in September 2023, Alexandra sent photographs of Russian military sites, taken by Viktoria, to a Telegram channel controlled by the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry. The Russian Federal Security Service’s Black Sea Fleet branch reportedly uncovered the women’s activities.

Viktoria admitted in her letters that she took the photos and sent them to her daughter in a “foolish” attempt to earn money. However, she maintains that they ultimately could not bring themselves to follow through fully with the plan. Alexandra recalls that officials initially told them that an expert analysis had found “nothing serious” in the images and assured the mother and daughter that they faced “at most a fine and probation.”

Then, in September 2024, the women were formally charged with high treason. Viktoria was immediately placed under travel restrictions. Alexandra spent the next two months under house arrest, which was subsequently commuted to travel restrictions. During these pre-trial proceedings, she became pregnant again.

Alexandra’s daughter, Lera, was born prematurely in March 2025, weighing just 530 grams (less than 1.2 pounds) and diagnosed with bronchopulmonary dysplasia, a chronic disease that affects premature babies with underdeveloped lungs. In mid-April, Lera stopped breathing on her own, her mother said, and had to be intubated.

On August 5, 2025, in a trial that lasted only a single day, the Sevastopol City Court handed down 12-year sentences to Alexandra and Viktoria. They were subsequently transferred to a detention facility in Simferopol. According to Alexandra, the court denied her a sentencing deferment, noting that “the children have a father.”

Maxim is currently caring for Solomiya and Lera. In her letters, Alexandra says the infant’s condition remains unstable. While Mediazona does not clarify whether the baby requires continuous hospitalization, Alexandra’s letters mention doctors and medical procedures. Specifically, the infant underwent lung surgery. “From what I understood, part of the lung started dying, so they removed the dead cells so it wouldn’t spread,” she explained. The child also underwent surgery for a hernia and an eye operation. “They were supposed to do another one before New Year’s, but I don’t know what’s happening with that yet,” she said. When Mediazona published its report, Lera and Maxim were back in the pediatric ward.

“He’s doing great handling both kids,” Alexandra wrote about Maxim. “But Solomiya keeps saying I dumped her and forgot about her. No matter what my husband says, she just won’t listen and sticks to her story. It hurts so much, and it’s really sad — it’s tough to read that kind of stuff.”

Viktoria wrote that all the “intense emotional ups and downs” in prison have taken their toll on her health. When she was free, she said she “learned to live with her sickness, sometimes just to spite it.” “I need treatment every six months, or I’m in big trouble. I try not to think about it, though. You can’t get sick in here. Nobody’s really going to help you,” she said.

Crimea’s Supreme Court will hear Alexandra and Viktoria’s appeal on January 21, 2026. Alexandra says she’s “not kidding herself,” but “deep down she still believes” they might grant her a sentence deferment. Viktoria is hoping the court shows some “fairness, understanding, and mercy,” especially for her daughter: “I really want the court to be on our side. Even if things are unsure for me, Sasha [Alexandra] needs to walk out of there and go straight home. I don’t even want to think about anything else happening. Her kids need her, period.”