War in Ukraine: he denounced the massacres perpetrated in Boutcha and Donetsk: this Russian is sentenced to several years in prison

Un cimetière à Boutcha en mai 2022. EPA – OLEG PETRASYUK

Ce mercredi 20 mars 2024, un Russe a été condamné à trois ans de prison pour avoir diffusé sur les réseaux sociaux des messages qualifiés de "mensongers", qui dénonçait les massacres en Ukraine.

If the information war rages throughout the world, repression continues in Russia. This Wednesday, a Russian court sentenced a 36-year-old man to three years in prison. The suspect had posted messages online on social networks denouncing the actions of Vladimir Putin's army in several cities in Ukraine, reports AFP, cited by The Parisian.

The price of freedom

His name is Vsevolod Koroliov, he is a documentary filmmaker but also a poet. His life was turned upside down this Wednesday after being convicted by a court. He who wanted to show the reality of things, what was happening in Boutcha, in Borodianka or even in Donetsk, will have cost him his freedom.

He had published messages, described as "lies", on the massacres perpetrated by the Russian army , more precisely "massive assassinations of civilians", explains the daily. These facts would have taken place in spring 2022, during the months of March and April. The thirty-year-old had also made several films on the artist Alexandra Skotchilenko as well as the journalist Maria Ponomarenko, who are also serving prison sentences for criticizing the invasion launched by Vladimir Putin towards Kiev in February 2022.

Vsevolod Koroliov, who was arrested in July of that same year, according to the NGO Memorial, was found guilty of "dissemination of false information" about the Russian army, by the Vyborsky District Court of St. Petersburg.

If Moscow has always refuted the accusations of occupation and the barbarity perpetrated in these Ukrainian cities, any criticism of its "special military operation" remains severely punished, as evidenced by the strong repression around freedom of expression.

Already the day before, this Tuesday, another court in southwest Russia sentenced a man to five years in prison for "spreading false information", web publications similar to those of Vsevolod Koroliov.