After the start of the great Russian war of aggression against Ukraine in February 2022, Kristina Lyubaschenko fled with her family from Kiev to Switzerland. Not having enough money to live on, she allowed herself to be drawn into a disastrous balloon campaign in Moscow…
Kristina Lyubaschenko is now 35 years old and lived in the Ukrainian capital until the war was unleashed by Russia. She has two small children and is also responsible for her mother, who has cancer, and her grandfather, who suffers from dementia. In 2022, the family fled to Switzerland and was granted asylum there, reports the independent Russian news portal Mediazona. However, the five were barely able to make ends meet with the money awarded.
One day the woman met a neighbor who said he was “a refugee from Ukraine.” He initially lent Lyubashenko money, but then asked her to fly to Moscow and organize a ‘peaceful action against the war’ for a fee. The promise was that all she had to do was release blue and yellow balloons into the sky.
Controlled and blackmailed
At the time, there was no white-blue-white flag or loudspeakers from which the Ukrainian national anthem and lyrics could be heard. Since March 2022, the white-blue-white color scheme has symbolized the protests against the Russian attack on Ukraine. The neighbor got the 35-year-old a plane ticket to Moscow and gave her a rental apartment in the Russian capital. There the woman was watched and forced to follow instructions.
After arriving in the Russian capital, the neighbor asked the Ukrainian woman to place speakers near her window that would broadcast an anti-war speech. She initially did not want to comply, according to her statement. However, after that things got really awkward: according to the information, the neighbor threatened her that if she refused, she would contact the authorities and deprive her of custody of her children. The woman was even able to prove in court that she was the victim of blackmail.
Seeing no way out, Lyubashenko placed loudspeakers in her window, which – in addition to the Ukrainian national anthem – broadcast an anti-war speech. She then drove to the Sparrow Mountains in the center of the Russian metropolis and released balloons into the sky. However, according to the descriptions, they were white balloons with a small white-blue-white flag on them.
The action ended much worse than expected
According to the information, the 35-year-old was arrested on the spot. The circumstances and background should not be of interest to anyone. On the other hand, the Russian judiciary viewed the loudspeaker operation as spreading “fake news” about the military. Before the balloons, the woman was accused of ‘participation in a terrorist organization’.
On Monday, the court severely sentenced the Ukrainian woman. She now has to spend twelve years in the infamous Russian prison camps. The Public Prosecution Service had initially even demanded a prison sentence of fifteen years – the fact that she has two small children was taken into account as a ‘mitigating circumstance’.
Source: Krone
I am Wallace Jones, an experienced journalist. I specialize in writing for the world section of Today Times Live. With over a decade of experience, I have developed an eye for detail when it comes to reporting on local and global stories. My passion lies in uncovering the truth through my investigative skills and creating thought-provoking content that resonates with readers worldwide.
