A court in Moscow arrested in absentia former representative of the Armed Forces of Ukraine's military defense Sarah Ashton-Cirillo

The Basmanny Court of Moscow arrested in absentia former representative of the territorial defense forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, 47-year-old Sarah Ashton-Cirillo. Mediazona became aware of this.

The suppression meeting took place in early November. A criminal case has been opened against Ashton-Cirillo regarding military “fakes” and mercenarism (Part 2 of Article 207.3, Part 3 of Article 359 of the Criminal Code).

Ashton-Cirillo is a transgender journalist and US citizen. After the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, she worked in the war zone as a war correspondent.

In the fall of 2022, she joined the territorial defense of the Ukrainian Army as a combat medic. In August 2023, she was appointed English-speaking representative of the defense forces, but a month later she was removed from her post due to comments about “Russian war criminals-propagandists” who “will be caught.” The Ukrainian command considered her words a possible violation of international law.

The Chairman of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, ordered that Ashton-Cirillo’s words be checked, and the head of the Human Rights Council under the President (HRC) Valery Fadeev demanded that a criminal case be opened against her under the article of threat of murder or terrorism.

In February 2024, Ashton-Cirillo’s name was included in the “register of extremists and terrorists” of Rosfinmonitoring, and in June her data appeared in the search database of the Ministry of Internal Affairs without indicating the article under which she was being prosecuted.