Ukraine seizes apartment of 80-year-old Russia supporter – media

A court in the Ukrainian city of Vinnytsa has mandated the confiscation of the apartment of an 80-year-old woman for posting pro-Russia comments on social media, the Ukrainian news daily TSN reported on Saturday.

Alla Stadnitskaya not only lost her apartment and all her property in Ukraine following the court ruling but was also sentenced to four years behind bars. The woman has been living with her relatives in Russia since the Covid-19 pandemic, so the verdict was issued in absentia. The ruling reportedly marks the first case in Ukraine’s history when a court has ordered the confiscation of someone’s property for expressing such views.

Stadnitskaya’s case was investigated by the Security Service of Ukraine, the media reports, although no information was provided on whether the court ruling is open to appeal.

The investigation concluded that the former teacher of physics had posted anti-Ukrainian comments via the Russian social network Odnoklassniki, having urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to come and save “Bandera’s Ukraine.” The woman had also ‘liked’ the comments of other users who had posted messages expressing hostility towards the Ukrainian authorities.

Stepan Bandera was the leader of the militant wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN-B) and a widely-recognized Nazi collaborator. The OUN-B tried to declare an independent Ukrainian state allied with the Third Reich and established the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which carried out the massacre of ethnic Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia, which Warsaw has officially recognized as a genocide. However, partly due to revisionist changes in the national school curriculum since the 2014 coup, he is now venerated in the country as a hero.

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