An American woman has been sentenced in absentia to 20 years in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) on charges of “spreading fake news” and mercenarism.

The Supreme Court of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic has sentenced transgender American journalist Sarah Ashton-Cirillo in absentia to 20 years in a general regime penal colony over criminal charges of spreading “fakes” about Russian military personnel (part 2, article 207.3 of the Criminal Code) and mercenarism (part 3, article 359 of the Criminal Code), reported Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office.

The “fakes” case stems from a video published in August 2023, which discussed alleged use of chemical weapons by Russian soldiers in Syria and Ukraine. “Mediazona” suggests it concerns a video from Ashton-Cirillo’s fact-checking project Russia hates the truth, where the journalist commented on Russian conspiracy theories about “biolaboratories” in Ukraine and cited a compilation of headlines about alleged Russian military development and use of biological and chemical weapons. In February last year, Ashton-Cirillo was added to the Rosfinmonitoring register, and in June her data appeared in the Interior Ministry wanted database. In November, “Mediazona” learned of the journalist’s arrest in absentia.

After the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Ashton-Cirillo worked in the conflict zone as a correspondent, and in autumn 2022 joined the ranks of Ukraine’s Territorial Defence Forces as a combat medic. In August 2023, she was appointed English-language spokesperson for the Territorial Defence Forces, but in September was relieved of her post over comments regarding “Russian war criminal propagandists,” with her remarks considered as potentially violating international law.