BBC Russian reveals that journalist Darya Shipacheva raised 1.5 million rubles for Ukraine’s military before receiving a 12-year treason sentence

On July 29, 2026, Darya Shipacheva, a 35-year-old medical journalist, was sentenced to 12 years in a penal colony for treason in Moscow City Court. The case drew significant attention as her conviction stemmed from raising funds for Ukraine's military. She transferred over 1.5 million rubles to Ukrainian blogger Vasilisa Levchenko, whom she had met through Levchenko's Sberbank account.

Levchenko, a Russian-language psychology blogger with 60,000 Instagram followers, began fundraising for Ukraine after the war started. Russian propagandists became aware of the fundraising, leading Sberbank and Rosfinmonitoring to block Levchenko's card and add her to a list of terrorists and extremists. Shipacheva, who had been living in Russia, chose to stay despite security services' interest in her.

Before her arrest, a stranger warned her that people would "soon come" for her. She wrote in letters to BBC journalists that her decision to raise funds was driven by concern for her family, as supporting one homeland meant betraying the other. Despite pleading guilty, she was warned she would face 18 years in prison if she admitted the truth.

Shipacheva's actions may have also led to another conviction, where IT consultant Nina Slobodchikova was sentenced to 12 years for treason over a smaller transfer.