The FSB reported on the detention of the former director of an art school in Lugansk; she was kidnapped a year ago and kept in isolation for 8 months in a pre-trial detention center

FSB officers detained a woman born in 1967 in annexed Crimea, suspected of high treason, according to the agency’s website. Human rights project “Support for political prisoners. Memorial" indicates that we are talking about the former director of the art school in Lugansk, 58-year-old Marina Kovalenko.

According to the FSB, the Security Service of Ukraine recruited the woman while crossing the border with Poland, and “as a basis for recruitment” the special services used the “fact of dependence”: an employee of the Russian department said in the video that Kovalenko’s son serves in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Security officials claim that Kovalenko, on the instructions of the curator, collected and transmitted information “about the activities of scientific, educational and other institutions of the LPR and the Republic of Crimea, to which she had access for work.” In addition, the woman “was required to establish the movement of military equipment” of Russian troops, the FSB added.

In the FSB video, Kovalenko says she signed a “statement of cooperation on a confidential basis,” and her recruiter asked her to take photographs and send “certain orders that will be sent by Russia.” The department's release states that the woman is in pre-trial detention.

As “Support for political prisoners” writes. Memorial”, Kovalenko was kidnapped on June 10, 2025 in the Crimean Alushta. After this, the woman was kept in isolation for more than eight months in pre-trial detention center No. 2 in Simferopol without being charged. In February, she was transferred to pre-trial detention center No. 1, the Tribunal reported , and accused of treason.