Volunteer from Kherson suffers without medicine and help in Russian Pre-trial Detention Center

Kherson activist and volunteer Iryna Gorobtsova, who was kidnapped by the Russians and illegally tried in Crimea, wrote a letter from the Pre-trial Detention Center. The woman complains of her serious health condition and lack of medical care.

In a letter dated December 11, Iryna reported that she suffers from constant migraines that have lasted for more than two years due to stress, lack of sleep and isolation. She also has serious heart problems. In her letter, the activist told how during a heart attack the paramedic did not come, and her cellmates tried to help her with “Corvalol” from their own supplies.

“I constantly ask for medicine, but there is none. The doctors of the pre-trial detention center do not have the right to write prescriptions, and without them they do not give me anything. Even when there is an opportunity to give me the necessary medicines, the medical service refuses to accept them because of my article – espionage. It is a vicious circle,” writes Gorobtsova.

Her sister Olena reported that before her arrest, Iryna was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm, which requires regular medical support. Despite this, the activist is denied proper treatment.

On May 13, 2022, on Iryna’s birthday, Russian military personnel in uniform broke into her family’s apartment in Kherson. After searching and seizing equipment, the Russians took Iryna for “interrogation.” She was transported to Crimea, where she was kept in isolation for a long time without contact with the outside world. The family learned about the woman’s whereabouts only 12 days later, when she underwent fingerprinting at the Simferopol Pre-Trial Detention Center No. 1.

In March 2024, Irina Gorobtsova was officially charged with espionage, in particular, in passing on information about the movement of Russian equipment and military personnel to Ukrainian intelligence. Although she was already under arrest at that time.

In August 2023, the Russian prosecutor’s office announced Irina’s sentencing to 10 years and 6 months in prison. The activist filed an appeal and is awaiting trial while in pre-trial detention.

Before the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, Irina worked as a tester in an IT company and was engaged in volunteer work. In occupied Kherson, she helped local doctors, searched for and delivered medicines and food, including to seriously ill people in remote areas. She also participated in peaceful protests against the occupation, posting photos on social networks, which became a pretext for persecution.

Earlier, a Russian court in the occupied territories of Kherson region sentenced three local men to imprisonment. They were accused of espionage.

Before that, in the left-bank part of Kherson region, the Russians killed a civilian boy. And before that, the Russians kidnapped the editor of a local newspaper, Zhanna Kiselyova, from her own apartment in temporarily occupied Kakhovka.