On 27 March 2025, a court in Russia’s Altay region sentenced RusNews journalist Maria Ponomarenko to an additional prison term of one year and 10 months, as reported by Russian independent media. Ponomarenko had earlier already been sentenced to six years in prison on charges of disseminating what Russian authorities claim is “fake news” on the war in Ukraine.
Prior to this, in November 2023, authorities opened a new criminal case against the journalist. The new charges were opened for an alleged violation of article 321.1 of Russia’s criminal code (“causing [physical] harm not dangerous to health”). According to an unnamed friend of Ponomarenko, who spoke to the journalist and was quoted by RusNews, the new charges were filed against her after a complaint was made by two male employees of the prison where she was being held at at the time. Ponomarenko denies the charges formulated against her.
RusNews later reported that according to Ponomarenko, the physical attack she was accused of carrying out took place when she was being taken to a disciplinary commission at the prison in which she was being held at at the time. The journalist said that the two prison employees forcefully took her to the commission after she refused to go on her own.
Following the filing of new charges against her, Ponomarenko was taken from the penal colony where she was serving her sentence to an detention center in Barnaul, in Russia’s Altay region. While the investigation is being carried out in the new case, Ponomarenko will not return to the penal colony where she was previously jailed, RusNews reported.
On 15 February 2023, journalist Maria Ponomarenko was sentenced to six years in prison for allegedly “discrediting” the Russian army by publishing information on Russia’s bombing of a theater in Mariupol, during a Russian offensive on the Ukrainian city in March 2022. Ponomarenko was also barred from working as a reporter and from any online activities for five years. The journalist had published the information on the bombings on her Telegram channel, which she named “No Censorship”, and which had an audience of 1600 users at the time.
In April, Ponomarenko was detained and brought to the Investigative Committee in St. Petersburg, where was charged. Russian authorities claimed that civilians were not hurt in the bombing of the Mariupol Drama Theater, which killed approximately 600 people according to independent estimates.
Ponomarenko was later forcefully transferred from her detention center to a psychiatric hospital, where she was sent to undergo a full examination. During her stay, she was not be allowed to receive letters and was allegedly submitted to medical procedures by force. Family visits were also forbidden. Ponomarenko was then again transferred to a detention center, where in September she attempted to commit suicide. She was then allowed to leave the center in November to remain under house arrest.
On 27 January 2023, Ponomarenko was again placed under arrest after she left her home and went to a police station following a fight with her ex-husband. On February 7, prosecutors asked judges to sentence her to nine years of prison and to impose a five year ban on her managing online publications.
UPDATE: On 2 November 2023, Russian independent media reported that authorities had opened a new criminal case against Ponomarenko, for allegedly physically assaulting prison guards. If found guilty, she would face up to five years in prison, in addition to the six-year sentence she is currently serving. Ponomarenko claims she did not assault guards.
UPDATE: On 12 February 2024, independent Russian media reported that at a court hearing in the new criminal case against Ponomarenko, the prison guards denied some of their previous allegations, with one of them stating that he would have not filed a complaint against the imprisoned journalist on his own initiative.
UPDATE: On 24 February 2025, prosecutors in the case requested a sentence of two years in prison for Ponomarenko.