St. Petersburg activist sentenced to 2 years and 8 months in prison for floral tribute to Ukrainian poet

A court in St. Petersburg sentenced Darya Kozyreva, a 19-year-old anti-war activist, to two years and eight months in prison for “repeatedly discrediting” the Russian military on Friday, independent media outlet Mediazona reported.

Kozyreva was detained by police on 24 February 2024, the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, after she left flowers at a St. Petersburg monument to Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko alongside a handwritten excerpt from one of his poems.

In August, she had a second charge for “discrediting the military” added to her docket for giving an interview to news outlet Sever.Realii, an affiliate of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that has been declared an “undesirable organisation” in Russia. Kozyreva pleaded not guilty to both charges.

Kozyreva, who was released from custody pending trial in February, arrived in court with her mother on Friday, while a crowd of around 40 people gathered outside the court to support her, Mediazona wrote.

Kozyreva used her closing statement to declaim part of the 1840 Taras Shevchenko poem To Osnovianenko in Ukrainian: “Our thought, our song / Will not die, will not perish…/ Oh there, people, is our glory, / Glory to Ukraine!”, despite being told to speak Russian by the prosecutor.

“I sincerely wish Russians would just remember these simple truths. Ukraine is a free nation. It will decide for itself how to go on its way. It will decide for itself who it considers its friend and brother, and who to consider its sworn enemy. It will decide how its history should be viewed. What’s more, it will decide what language to speak,” Kozyreva said.

“It may seem like I’m saying obvious things, but they’re not actually that obvious. Clearly, Putin does not understand that Ukraine is a sovereign nation. He doesn’t grasp a lot of things, though — like human rights and democratic principles,” she continued.

Ending her speech, Kozyreva said that she hoped one day, Ukraine would “get back every inch of its land” including Donbas and Crimea. “One day, history will bring justice. But Ukraine has already won.”