April 23 (Reuters) – A woman living in a Russian-controlled part of southern Ukraine has been found guilty of treason and sentenced to 14 years in prison for buying war bonds to support the Ukrainian military, the court that convicted her said on Thursday.
The Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia District Court said the woman had used a Ukrainian mobile app to purchase bonds worth 270,080 roubles ($3,600), and had been caught by the FSB security service.
It identified her only by the initial B, and said she was a Russian citizen. People living in parts of Ukraine that Russian forces have captured in more than four years of war have effectively been forced to take Russian citizenship if they want to retain access to healthcare, pensions and property rights.
Human rights group Memorial, which Russia this month branded an extremist movement, named the woman as 66-year-old Larisa Belyayeva, a doctor from the village of Lyubimovka.
Ukraine began issuing war bonds in February 2022, immediately after Russia’s full-scale invasion, in order to fund its defence.
They have been promoted as a patriotic investment with the potential for attractive tax-free yields – currently up to 17.45% for bonds denominated in Ukrainian hryvnia, and more than 4% for dollar-denominated paper.
($1 = 74.9000 roubles)
(Reporting by Mark Trevelyan in London; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
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