St. Petersburg Anti-War Teen Released Pending Trial on Wartime Censorship Charges
A court in St. Petersburg released a 19-year-old anti-war activist from pretrial detention on Friday, though she remains under strict restrictions while awaiting trial for “discrediting” Russia’s military.
Daria Kozyreva faces up to five years in prison if convicted of the charges. A judge had returned her case to prosecutors in December, citing procedural errors.
As part of her release conditions, Kozyreva is banned from leaving her home at night, using the internet or speaking to the press until Dec. 2.
She was arrested last February on the second anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion for attaching a poem by Ukrainian writer Taras Shevchenko to his monument in St. Petersburg. Authorities charged her with “repeatedly discrediting” the Russian military.
In 2023, Kozyreva was fined 30,000 rubles ($341) for an anti-war social media post and expelled from her university.
She was previously arrested in 2022 for writing “Murderers, you bombed it to rubble. Judases” on an installation symbolizing the “brotherhood” between St. Petersburg and Mariupol, a Ukrainian city devastated by Russian forces.
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