The Strilets family and the FSB. While doctors fought for the life of a newborn girl from Crimea her mother and grandmother were sentenced to 12 years for treason

“From time to time, it hits me very hard, and at those moments, the only thing that stops me is the fact that it’s not any easier for her. It really isn’t any easier for her. She really needs my support. Just as I need support from my loved ones, she needs mine. But that’s what stops me from time to time. But at those moments, it feels like the whole world is against me,” wrote 24-year-old Simferopol resident Alexandra Strilets on her Instagram in March 2025. She had just been discharged from the hospital after a difficult delivery. Alexandra’s daughter Lera, born two weeks prior, remained in intensive care. 

The girl, who was 30 centimeters tall and weighed 530 grams, was born on March 14, 2025. According to her mother, she was diagnosed with bronchopulmonary dysplasia. Before discharge, Alexandra was able to see Lera three times a day, and after that, only 15-20 minutes a day. 

“The second time I visited, she took my finger. Now it’s a mandatory ritual, which means we’ll keep fighting together,” Alexandra said. She started a section called “The Fight” on her Instagram stories and spent several months describing in detail everything that was happening to her and her child. 

In mid-April, according to Alexandra, Lera stopped breathing on her own and was intubated. Nevertheless, after a few weeks, the girl’s condition allowed her mother to hold her in her arms for the first time.

“It’s impossible to describe and transmit what I felt. I was overwhelmed with emotions all evening. What I experienced was so amazing... The way she calms down, the way she enjoys herself, it’s just indescribable,” Alexandra told her followers. On July 10, she posted her last story about Lera and warned that she would no longer talk about her child on her public account, where “there are some crazy people who allow themselves to write insults.” 

Alexandra was born in Sevastopol. Her mother, 42-year-old Victoria Strilets, recalls that she married early after meeting an “officer” in her hometown. 

“[After Russia’s invasion in the Crimea] in 2014, my husband left with his unit for Mykolaiv, and I stayed behind. I was born here, I couldn’t leave my home, my mother, and my stability, because two children are a responsibility,” Victoria writes. She says that all this time it was “difficult morally and materially” for her: the family spent several years “in trips, phone calls, and hopes.” Victoria’s daughters lived with their father and graduated from a Ukrainian school; their mother “blamed herself for them being far away,” but “visited them whenever she could.”

In 2017, Alexandra returned to her mother in Sevastopol for the summer and was preparing to apply to university, but “life had other plans.” “My mother’s health deteriorated significantly. She underwent standard treatment, but it didn’t help. I took her to a private clinic, and everyone there was shocked: for ten years, she had been treated for a disease she didn’t have,” Alexandra says. ”She was referred to the city’s chief neurologist, had tests and an MRI, and was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.” 

Victoria has always had health problems. As she and her daughter write, the woman was beaten in her youth, and she had a stroke due to “nervous stress.” “They tried to convince me to apply for disability, because it’s for life. But... I’m young and strong, why would I need that?” Victoria recalls. “The doctors pulled me out on the last stop. I already had brain swelling.”

Alexandra had to give up studies at the university to earn money for her mother’s medication. She says that in the first year she managed to work three jobs at once: as a waitress and as a saleswoman in a construction and meat stores. Then she got a job at a gas station. In the meat store, she met (or rather, her mother introduced her to) a man named Maxim. In 2020, she became pregnant but soon broke up with Maxim. 

She gave birth to a daughter, Solomiya. As Alexandra recalled on her Instagram, the first birth was also difficult: both she and the girl, who weighed just over a kilogram, “were on the verge of death and ready to leave.”

Alexandra writes that her condition “deteriorated quickly” in the second half of her pregnancy. At 27 weeks, she was admitted to intensive care with moderate preeclampsia. 

“The doctors at the Sevastopol maternity hospital almost killed me and my daughter. They missed the moment when my kidneys failed, and by the time they noticed, I had already gained 20 kg in one week,” Alexandra recalls. She underwent surgery at the perinatal center in Simferopol for “swelling in the head,” and Victoria was told that her daughter was dying.

“It was a miracle that my daughter and I survived. The doctors told me this repeatedly,” Alexandra writes. According to her, the recovery was “very difficult.” The child had no reflexes, and during the first year, she had to “constantly run to the doctors and get tests done.” Alexandra “didn’t give up,” and by the age of one, Solomiya differed from her peers “only in height.” 

All this time, Alexandra lived with her mother, “went through the horror with her and was afraid to leave her alone.” Victoria “might have not understood where she was” or “forgot where she was going.” 

“I was always there for her and kept an eye on her. Even when she started feeling better, we kept up the habit. My mom would always call me and tell me where she was and how she was doing,” Alexandra recalls.

Victoria writes that despite her illness, she never stopped working and tried to devote “all her love, care, and time” to her children and grandchildren: “Work, home, work, and everything for the children.” In addition to Alexandra, she has a younger daughter who is also raising a child without a father. Victoria says that she and her daughters always worked “so that they could replace each other.” 

“There were great financial difficulties. At such moments, it is sometimes possible to make a mistake,” Victoria admits.

Around the same time, Alexandra became professionally involved in astrology. She writes that esotericism is “the second most important thing” in her life after her family. 

“It all started when I was about five years old, and it has been with me my whole life. I just got used to seeing and hearing more than others, but I didn’t get into it. However, in 2020, I decided to take a deeper step, studied astrology, went further into the Matrix, and Tarot cards are now my friends. Then, after studying myself more deeply, I went into magic, started practicing, bought runes to study, but didn’t have time,” Alexandra says.

When Solomiya was three years old, Alexandra met Maxim again and realised that she “couldn’t live without him.” At that time, she was “about to get married to someone else,” but after two weeks, she told herself that she “didn’t want to live like that” and filed for divorce. In March 2024, she quit her job to move with her daughter to Simferopol to be with Maxim.

On the last day before her dismissal, Alexandra received a call from friends at the store who said they had “seen her mother being detained.”

“She was at home with Solya that day. I started calling her, but her phone was unavailable. I left work and went home. When I arrived, the search was already over, and they were drawing up reports. Everything was fine, my daughter wasn’t scared,” Alexandra recalls. 

Victoria writes that she was “shocked” by what was happening and “didn’t understand how it would end.” First, they took her away for questioning—and then Alexandra. At 9 p.m., both women returned home. “After a long conversation, they apparently realised that we were not dangerous, that we were sane, or maybe something else,” says Victoria. 

The women do not write about the substance of the charges in detail, citing a non-disclosure agreement. The security forces’ version was briefly outlined in a press release from the prosecutor’s office after the verdict: Alexandra “decided to cooperate confidentially with representatives of Ukraine against the security of the Russian Federation for remuneration” and “involved her mother in carrying out these activities.” In September 2023, the daughter allegedly transferred photographs of Russian military facilities taken by Victoria “to a channel controlled by the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defence.” The women’s “criminal activities” were uncovered by FSB officers assigned to the Black Sea Fleet.

Victoria does not deny that she took the photos and sent them to her daughter because they “decided to make some money, stupidly.” However, according to her, she and Alexandra never decided to go through with it: “It’s not worth it, it’s very scary and wrong.” 

“An examination of the photos showed that they were not serious, like, ‘Don’t worry, the maximum penalty is a fine and probation,’” Victoria recalls the promises made by law enforcement officials. Alexandra also writes that the information on her phone “did not entail anything, did not pose any threat, and could not be used against Russia’s security.” 

According to both women, until September 2024, they “were at home, and everything was fine,” and then “the case was transferred to the investigator.” The mother and daughter were charged with treason.

Alexandra writes that Victoria was prohibited to leave town, while she herself spent the first two months under house arrest—and later restrictions were softened to a travel ban as well. During this time, the young woman became pregnant with her third daughter. 

“I was in shock again. I understood what this meant: it was dangerous both for her and for the child,” Victoria recalls. “She immediately began to have health problems, and all the doctors insisted on terminating the pregnancy. But that was unacceptable, and we fought with them and with ourselves.”

The case of the Strilets family was heard by the Sevastopol City Court on August 5, 2025. Alexandra and Victoria were each sentenced to 12 years in prison. Both were taken into custody in the courtroom and sent to one of the Simferopol detention centres, to wait for an appeal there. According to Alexandra, she was denied a deferral of her sentence, which is possible for mothers of children under 14, “because the kids have a father.” 

“To be honest, I was sure that I would be given a deferral and my mother would receive a suspended sentence. No one was going to go to prison. Of course, we had thought about it, but it came as a real shock to both of us. My mother burst into tears immediately, but I didn’t even flinch. I started crying when I was already in the detention centre,” the Alexandra recalls. 

Victoria writes that during the trial, her and her daughter’s thoughts were “somewhere else entirely.” Lera was scheduled to have surgery the next day. After the verdict, the woman “didn’t really understand or hear anything”: “How? Why? We’re not murderers, we’re not evil monsters. But our charges are too serious. It doesn’t matter what kind of person you are, what your background is, no one is interested in that.” 

Maxim took care of the children. According to Alexandra, Lera’s condition remains unstable. 

“While I was in the detention centre, she underwent lung surgery. As I understand it, part of her lung began to die, and they removed the dead cells so that they would not affect the rest. They also removed a hernia and performed surgery on her eyes. They were supposed to do it again before New Year’s, but I don’t know how things stand with that yet,” she says.

In the summer, Alexandra wrote that her youngest daughter was getting better: “Her teeth are coming in, she is slowly learning to eat from a bottle, and she has been taken off all IVs.” In November, doctors at the hospital “forgot to change Lera’s intubation tube,” and the girl “became ill, stopped breathing twice in half a day, and ended up in intensive care.” Maxim then wrote to Alexandra that “seventeen doctors” were fighting for the child’s life.

“I don’t know how he survived it. If I were in his place, I would have gone crazy. I had already said goodbye to her once, because even the doctors didn't believe she would breathe, and two hours later she started breathing,” the says Alexandra. 

According to her, Lera is now back in the pediatric ward with Maxim, who is caring for his daughter and “trying to wean her off the machine.” 

“As far as I understand, she can breathe on her own, but if she gets nervous or coughs, she needs extra oxygen,” Alexandra says. “She doesn’t seem to have any abnormalities; she is developing, playing, and understanding everything. But as long as she has a tube in her trachea, she cannot be fed from a bottle, so she mainly eats through a feeding tube, except for purees, which she eats from a spoon.”

“If there is no improvement in two months,” Alexandra says, the girl will be transferred to Moscow for treatment, but she wants Lera and her father to “go home as soon as possible.”

“Lera is my hero, my little and such a strong example of how to love life and how to fight for it. I know she will make it, she is strong, I really believe in her,” the young woman writes.

Alexandra describes the conditions in the Simferopol detention center as “more than” normal. “It’s not at all like they show in the movies, it’s much better. Relations with my cellmates are good, we are all here under the same article [of the Criminal Code, ‘treason’], so there are no problems,” she explains. “Of course, there are disagreements, but we are all adults, so at least some friction is inevitible. But I want to say that I have met many good people here, sincere and genuine, and I am sure that we will keep in touch with many of them after prison.” 

Victoria writes that her first days in the detention center were “hell” for her, “not understanding what was happening, not knowing what was going on at home, how my children and grandchildren were doing, and in general, what to do next.” All this time, the woman was in “unbearable pain”: she was “angry at herself and the whole world.” “Despair, hopelessness, the realisation that I had let my loved ones down.” She was only able to see her daughter two months after her arrest, when they were “taken for familiarisation” with case materials.

According to Victoria, the attitude toward prisoners with charges like she and her daughter have varies greatly among the staff at the detention centre: “Some people say things to our faces, while others just look at us with disapproval.”

“Well, I understand that they’re just doing their job, that’s all. We are not violent or mentally ill, so the attitude is normal, as far as possible. I’m even grateful to them in some ways, because I’ve heard stories from other girls and I realise that we’re still very lucky.”

Like her daughter, Victoria writes about her good relationship with cellmates: “We all have the same problem, we are all completely sane and sensible people, it’s just that we can’t wrap our heads around what’s happening.”

Victoria recalls that while free, she “learned to live with her illness, and sometimes even in spite of it,” even with the “four foci,” “two in the head and two in the back.” She only misses driving: “The highway, the road, the music.” However, she admits that her health is “undermined by strong emotional impressions and fluctuations.”

“I have to undergo treatment every six months, otherwise there will be trouble. I try not to think about it. You can’t get sick here, no one will really help you,” Victoria says.

In her letters, Alexandra confirms that her mother needs to repeat the treatment every six months—two weeks of injections and IV drips: “She’s young too, and I really don’t want her to go to prison.”

Because of the children, Maxim “rarely manages to work,” and when he does, Solomiya “spends all day riding with him.” 

“He’s doing a great job, coping with two. But Solomiya keeps saying that I abandoned her and forgot about her. And no matter what my husband says, she doesn’t hear him, she stands her ground. It’s very sad and painful, it’s hard to read,” Alexandra admits. She writes that her eldest daughter “speaks Russian and English, is very smart and is no different from other children,” adding that she “misses her little ones very much.” 

On January 21, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Crimea in Sevastopol will consider the appeal of Alexandra and Victoria Strilets against the verdict.

“To be honest, I don’t hope for anything anymore, I don’t even have any illusions. But somewhere inside, there is a glimmer of hope that I will be given a reprieve. The lawyer has collected a bunch of references and once again received a document from the hospital stating that the presence of the mother is necessary. Well, maybe the judge will be a human being, because I don’t understand how anyone can react calmly to my story,” Alexandra writes. “I really want to believe that the court will be on my side, but it’s hard to believe. And the closer the date gets, the more scared I am. I’m afraid I just won’t survive this. Twelve years is a very long time. Why will my children need me in twelve years? It hurts to realise all this, honestly.”

Victoria writes that she expects “justice, understanding, and mercy” from the court: “I really want the court to be favorable to us. Even if there are still questions about me, Sasha should be released immediately and sent home. I don’t even want to think about any other outcome. Her children need her, and there is no other way.”

Editor: Dmitry Tkachev