Search
The Central District Military Court in Yekaterinburg has sentenced 39-year-old mother of two, Valeria Marchenko, to 20 years in a penal colony in connection with an attempted arson of a military conscription office in Yekaterinburg. This was reported by SOTAvision.
Marchenko was found guilty under charges of preparing a terrorist act by a group by prior conspiracy (point “a” part 2 article 205 of the Criminal Code combined with part 1 article 30), high treason (part 1 article 275), and undergoing training for the purpose of carrying out terrorist activities (article 205.3).
The trial was held behind closed doors. According to SOTAvision, Marchenko is accused of attempting to set fire to the Central District Military Commissariat between 22 and 24 March. The woman was detained on her way to the conscription office carrying eight Molotov cocktails. According to investigators, the convicted woman allegedly intended to set the conscription office on fire “with the aim of destabilising the authorities and influencing decisions to end the ‘special military operation.’”
As SOTAvision writes, Marchenko was encouraged to set fire to the conscription office by a person claiming to be an employee of the Ukrainian “I Want To Live” project. This person also sent her photo instructions on how to make incendiary mixtures.
Marchenko says she is confident that she was corresponding with a Ukrainian servicemember, not a member of the Russian security services, because “he knew things the Russian special services do not know.”
The convicted woman fully admitted her guilt. According to a SOTAvision source familiar with the case, she “is standing her ground to the end and is completely unafraid of the sentence.”
Before facing criminal prosecution, Marchenko worked as an ammonia refrigeration operator at a poultry farm in Reftinsky, a settlement in Sverdlovsk Region, a major area in the Urals. She has a 20-year-old son and a 13-year-old daughter.
News of Marchenko’s prosecution first emerged in September 2024. At the time, it was reported that she was detained on 14 March in a case concerning terrorism and high treason, but the specifics of the charges were not yet known.