Kozyreva Darja Aleksandrovna, born on October 7, 2005, a citizen of the Russian Federation, resides in Saint Petersburg, formerly a student at the Medical Faculty of Saint Petersburg State University.

She is accused of committing crimes under Part 1 of Article 167 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Intentional damage to property causing significant harm,” up to 2 years of imprisonment) and Part 1 of Article 280.3 (“Public actions aimed at discrediting the use of the Russian Federation Armed Forces,” up to 5 years of imprisonment). She was held in custody from February 24, 2024, to February 7, 2025, when she was released with a ban on certain actions.

This 19-year-old girl delivered an incredibly courageous speech in a Saint Petersburg court yesterday in Putin’s Russia. The student Darja Kozyreva was tried for “discrediting” the army (Part 1 of Article 280.3) – for a piece of paper with poems by Taras Shevchenko, which she attached to a monument of the Ukrainian poet on the war’s anniversary. Here is her final statement: “If Taras Grigorievich accidentally found himself in our time, perhaps it would be expected of me to say that he would be quietly shocked. No, he wouldn’t even be surprised – not in the least. The scene would be all too familiar to him. Muscovy is meddling again. Of course, the war didn’t start in 2022, and even in a narrower sense, the starting point should be considered 2014.

In 2014, it was started by the same Russians who are guilty of every drop of spilled blood. In a broader sense, the war has been going on not since 14, but for centuries. A remarkable feature of Russian history. No matter what regime ruled here, it’s as if a religion forbids that regime from simply leaving Ukraine alone. Tsars, communists – they were no different from each other, no matter what disguise they tried to put on. One would think that over so many centuries, they could have understood: just back off, back off. Yes, Moscow won, won many times, but it has never seen a final victory. And it never will. The Ukrainian people will no longer allow it. They’ve had enough. But the lovers of occupation still haven’t grasped this. They’re not the smartest, no matter how much they’d like to be.

No one gave them the right to speak about Ukraine’s past and future. They don’t understand that Ukrainians don’t need any “elder brother,” especially not some triune Russian people. Ukraine is a free country, a free nation, and it will decide its own fate. If someone spreads the invader’s narratives, Ukrainians will hate them. And there’s no point talking about Ukrainian nationalists. They brought it on themselves. If someone interferes in Ukraine, they’ll be beaten. And perhaps painfully. I sincerely wish for Russians to simply remember these basic truths. Ukraine, once again, is a free nation. It will decide for itself which path to take. It will decide who to consider a friend and brother. And who – a fierce enemy. It will decide how to treat its history. And above all, it will decide which language to speak. I’m stating seemingly obvious things, but they’re not obvious.

It’s clear that Putin can’t comprehend that Ukraine is a sovereign nation. By the way, there’s a lot he can’t comprehend. Like human rights, democratic principles. But even those who seem to be against Putin’s regime don’t always understand this. They don’t always understand that Ukraine, which has paid for its sovereignty with blood, will decide for itself how to be. Of course, one wants to believe that with the arrival of democracy, this attitude will change sooner or later. One wants to believe in such a beautiful future where Russia has abandoned all imperialism – both predatory and bloodthirsty, and hidden, concealed in people’s thoughts. God willing, just God willing. I already mentioned in the debates that it would be absurd to mention shackles in the context of modern Ukraine. Well, Ukrainians won’t let themselves be chained again. And they didn’t allow it now. But in Taras’s time, shackles, unfortunately, were a harsh reality. That’s why you won’t find militant calls to beat Muscovites in his work. It wasn’t that time, those weren’t the hopes. His patriotic work is a lament. A lament for Ukraine’s bitter fate. A lament for the forgotten glory of the Zaporozhians. A lament for the mistakes and defeats that caused Ukraine to lose its will. He, of course, believed that one day the former glory would return, that the ghosts of great hetmans would rise from the centuries, that Ukraine would finally cast off the enemy’s chains. He couldn’t know exactly when it would happen. He couldn’t know that in just half a century, the Ukrainian People’s Republic would appear on the map, that the same Ukrainian peasants, once enslaved, without rights, without a voice, would finally raise the national flag, that they would take up arms and go to fight the Bolsheviks and volunteers led by Petliura.

Unfortunately, the Bolsheviks won. And unfortunately, not only for Ukrainians but for many nations. And Ukraine fell into the hands of a cruel executioner for another 70 years.

“I must interrupt you again, this is not a history lesson,” – the judge Ovrach interjected wearily.

Now about the present. Today, the shackles have long been cast off. No one will ever put them on Ukraine again. The people shed blood for their freedom for centuries. They will no longer give that freedom to anyone. Ukrainians vividly remember how their ancestors fought. And one wants to ask just one question. Does the eastern neighbor remember the same? There are no communists anymore, thankfully, and even fewer tsars, but the imperialist traditions seem to remain. Yes, as I already said, it seems Putin can’t grasp Ukraine’s sovereignty. He would, in principle, be perfectly satisfied with a submissive, voiceless Little Russia, preferably even a Little Russian province, with no will of its own, obeying his every word, speaking a foreign language, gradually forgetting its own, native one. There was definitely a miscalculation somewhere.

Well, it was hard for Putin to believe that Little Russia would never shine for him again. Ukrainians simply won’t let their country be turned into that. Putin tried, persistently tried. In 2014, he annexed Crimea, he ignited the war in Donbas for the same purposes. In 22, he apparently decided it was time to finish what he started. It was a good plan. Blitzkrieg, Kyiv in three days. It’s no surprise that neither three years nor thirty years would have been enough. The enemy was quickly driven out of the Kyiv region, forced to flee from the Kharkiv region, and driven out of Kherson. The occupiers not only failed to reach the capital, they still don’t fully control the ORDO. Part of Ukrainian land, yes, is still occupied. It may remain occupied for a long time. It’s sad to admit, but alas. However, Moscow failed to subdue Ukraine. The heroic Ukrainian people rose to defend their Homeland. And at the cost of many, many sacrifices, they defended their country. The national flag flies over Kyiv and will fly forever.

As early as the beginning of 2022, when they were driven out of the capital, the occupiers were simply left empty-handed. I dream, of course, that Ukraine will reclaim every inch of its land, including Donbas and Crimea. I believe that one day my dream will come true. Someday history will judge everything fairly. But Ukraine has already won. It has already won. That’s all.”

Published in “Mediazona”
Tamara Yeslyamova

In the Petrograd Court of Saint Petersburg, the prosecutor Mikhail Russkikh (this name is worth remembering!) demanded 6 years in a general-regime colony for the activist Darja Kozyreva, as well as a 4-year ban on administering websites, as reported by our correspondent from the courtroom. The prosecutor demanded that the girl be taken into custody directly in the courtroom. The prosecutor also called Kozyreva “a rather bright and extraordinary personality” whose correction “is possible only in places of deprivation of liberty.” The prosecutor Russkikh moves through the court accompanied by nine masked security officers. The maximum penalty for repeated “discrediting” of the army is 7 years.

The persecution of Kozyreva began in 2022, when the then 17-year-old Kozyreva wrote on an installation dedicated to Saint Petersburg’s aid to Mariupol the phrase: “Murderers, you bombed it. Judases.” In early 2024, the student was expelled from SPbU for posts on “VKontakte” criticizing criminal articles on “discrediting” and “fake news.”

She was first detained when Kozyreva was only 16 years old: on August 2, 2022, in the “Patriot” park, she and her friend tore off Z and V stickers from equipment. Protocols for “discrediting” the army were drawn up against Kozyreva and her friend at the time, but the case against the girl did not reach court – the juvenile affairs commission did not convene.