A woman from Krasnodar, who had returned from Kherson after visiting her grandmother, disappeared after being detained at the airport.

A woman from Krasnodar was detained at Sochi airport after returning from visiting her grandmother in Kherson. She has not been in contact for almost three months, reports the outlet “Ostorozhno, novosti” (“Caution, news”).

Spouses Natalia and Yuri A. moved to Krasnodar from Kherson after the Russian army’s retreat in November 2022. The couple and their minor son received Russian citizenship. In Krasnodar, 35-year-old Natalia found work as a nanny.

In June 2025, she travelled to visit her grandmother, who had remained in Kherson and was awaiting surgery. Natalia entered the city via Ukraine.

On 3 August, on her way back, the woman was detained at Sochi airport, her husband Yuri told journalists. Late that evening, she called him from someone else’s number and said that border officials had confiscated her phone and bank cards, and “asked her to confess to things she hadn’t done.” She has not been in contact since.

On 5 August Natalia was sentenced to 11 days’ arrest under the article on failing to obey a serviceman’s orders (Article 18.7 of the Administrative Code)—allegedly, she refused to show her passport at border control, according to the court ruling.

A week later, the appeals court rejected her lawyer’s request to reduce the sentence to time served. Natalia was not brought to this hearing.

On 14 August, her detention period ended, but the woman did not leave the detention centre. The Ministry of Internal Affairs told her husband that early in the morning, FSB officers had taken her to Volgograd, a major city on the Volga River, for investigative proceedings. However, the FSB claims that they are not conducting any investigation relating to Natalia.

At the end of August, Yuri filed a missing person report for his wife. She still has not been formally declared missing. According to Yuri, a Sochi police officer said a criminal case had been opened against Natalia and advised him “not to interfere.”

Yuri has repeatedly appealed to the FSB, the prosecutor’s office and other agencies, but they all respond that they have no information about his wife’s whereabouts. The Investigative Committee told him she was released “upon completion of her sentence.”

“I have to find her, get her a lawyer. I have to help her however I can, if she’s guilty of anything. I have to say something to our child at home,” says Yuri. “Natalia is not a criminal at all—she just went to see her grandmother.”

• At the beginning of October, OVD-Info reported the detention of two women who arrived in Sochi from Istanbul at different times. They have not been released from the detention centre for weeks, yet no criminal charges have been filed against them. FSB officers explained one woman’s detention by saying she “had shown a certain interest and taken certain steps to join the Armed Forces of Ukraine.” The other was detained due to alleged donations. It is known that she lives in Crimea and holds both Russian and Ukrainian passports.