"Maybe I am making my position worse with my words, but my honour and conscience are more important to me. I did what I considered necessary,"
"I don't think of myself as a cowardly or weak person, so I decided to fight against Russian military aggression,"
"Prosecutors claimed Lemeshchenko had blown up power lines outside St Petersburg and had later travelled to Voronezh, where she was staking out a Russian air force commander with a view to killing him."
"Russian authorities have systematically threatened, beaten and tortured Ukrainian prisoners of war and other detainees accused of working for Ukraine."
Yulia Lemeshchenko disappeared from her Kharkiv gym in autumn 2023 and later appeared in a Moscow court accused of plotting sabotage and assassinations for Ukrainian security services. Prosecutors alleged she blew up power lines near St Petersburg and later travelled to Voronezh to stake out a Russian air force commander with intent to kill him. She received a 19-year prison sentence. She did not deny the accusations and said her honour and conscience were clear. She described devastation in her Kharkiv suburb and the deaths of friends and said she chose to fight Russian military aggression. She is a Russian citizen born in Voronezh who moved to Kharkiv in 2014 with her husband and child.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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