You're reading: Is Anastasia Leonova a Kremlin critic, Azov medic, or ‘terrorist’ in a fur coat?

While most Ukrainians were busy blissfully celebrating the New Year holidays last week, a group of Russians were issuing a dramatic plea to save a young Russian woman accused of terrorism by Ukraine’s Security Service.


The fallout of that plea has ensnared not only Ukrainian authorities, who some say have arrested an innocent woman working as a combat medic, but also ordinary Russians and Ukrainians, now knee-deep in a nasty war of words over whether Russians should be volunteering in Ukraine to begin with.

Good Samaritan or Kremlin spy?

At the heart of the controversy is Muscovite Anastasia Leonova, whose story varies depending on who is asked. To her mother and friends back in Moscow – a group of opposition activists – she’s a brave critic of the Kremlin who moved to Ukraine to work as a combat medic for Ukrainian soldiers on the battlefield. To Ukraine’s Security Service, she’s a Muscovite who was involved with a terrorist organization on Ukrainian soil. And to many Ukrainian fighters, she’s completely unknown, a name without a face.

Leonova was arrested in Kyiv on Dec. 10, less than a day after six others were detained in a dramatic sting operation in the city’s Obolon district that saw one suspect, the alleged head of a terrorist group, Oleh Muzhchyl, killed in a shootout. During that operation, SBU operatives said they discovered an entire arsenal, including explosives, in Muzhchyl’s apartment, and that the group had been planning a series of attacks.

Leonova is accused of belonging to that group. She could be imprisoned for up to 27 years if she is found guilty of being a member of terrorist group and planning a terrorist attack. But she was taken into custody in much different circumstances, while wearing a fur coat and carrying a bottle of wine.

Her friends and family cite such contrasts when coming to her defense. According to her mother, Olga Leonova, Anastasia Leonova wasn’t even involved in fighting in Ukraine’s east. She was “trying to get citizenship and earning money as a sommelier,” her mother said, noting that she had been living in Kyiv since late August.

As for accusations of terrorism, she said her daughter’s Russian passport may have played a part – or investigators simply screwed up and were too stubborn to back down.

“Nastya had interacted with Muzhchyl. Based on that, probably, the SBU came to the conclusion that she was part of his group,” Olga Leonova told the Kyiv Post.

Anastasia Leonova admitted to having spoken to Muzhchyl in comments made public by her lawyer, Viktor Gubsky, but said her conversations with the alleged terrorist had been limited to religion, Russian politics and how to go about getting Ukrainian citizenship.

“When I was questioned by the SBU, the investigator very openly implied that she was an agent for the FSB (Federal Security Service of Russia). I’ve never heard anything funnier in my life! Paranoia!” she said.

Unclear charges

Court documents published by Leonova’s lawyer show that investigators say she “helped with information on the best place, time and way to carry out an attack,” though no further details on this were provided. Nor were details on what evidence investigators have to substantiate this.

Gubsky has complained that the lack of details on the accusations against Leonova represent a serious processual violation by authorities. “It’s unclear what specific actions were committed by Anastasia, when, where, in what way and with what aim … In the official accusation it is said that Anastasia was part of the group organized by Muzhchyl. But really, does the fact that she was acquainted with him to some extent make her a member of his criminal group?” Gubsky told the Kyiv Post.

Although Yury Tandit, a representative for the SBU, told journalists that Leonova’s case had been handed over to the Prosecutor General’s Office, Vladislav Kutsenko, a spokesman for the Prosecutor General, told the Kyiv Post the SBU was still in charge and declined to comment on the case, directing all inquiries to the SBU.

Repeated calls to SBU spokeswoman Olena Hitlyanska went unanswered.

Mysterious background

Leonova’s case has gained attention not only for the charges against her, but also for her background. While Leonova has described herself as a combat medic for the Azov Regiment, representatives of Azov have called that into question, and it’s unclear what exactly she was doing in Ukraine since she arrived in April.

Azov’s press service told the Kyiv Post they were currently looking into Leonova’s claims of being part of the regiment, but said that she had nothing to do with the military unit or medical services. She had only been there for a few weeks, a spokesman said, adding that he was not sure when exactly that was.

Olena Mosiychuk, a female medic with Azov who has worked in various villages in the war-torn east, declined to comment on the case against Leonova but said she had never met her.

Vladimir Kostin, a member of Right Sector in Kharkiv, said he himself had tested Leonova on her skills as a medic and been disappointed, describing her as “almost a zero.”

According to him, Leonova was booted from the ranks of Right Sector for “systematic disciplinary violations, not taking orders and stirring up trouble” with other members.

Yevgeny Kaplin, a medical volunteer for a nonprofit group in Kharkiv who knew Leonova personally, told the Kyiv Post she had lived near Kharkiv.

“As far as I know, she lived at a training base for the civilian corps of Azov near Kharkiv for about a month and a half, she was a volunteer and instructor in first aid there,” Kaplin told the Kyiv Post.

“Until then, she was located at a base for Right Sector near Kharkiv for a few weeks, and then later left them,” he said, adding that she had visited his office from time to time to help collect products for people living near the front line.

“She was sincere. And spoke of how she regretted Russia’s war against Ukraine and had come here to help Ukrainians,” he said.

Bad blood between ordinary Ukrainians and Russians

Leonova’s arrest also led to perhaps the most heated debate yet on whether Russians are even welcome as volunteers in Ukraine. Yevgeny Levkovich, a Russian opposition activist and journalist, described Leonova’s arrest as a “horrific mistake” and called on Ukrainian lawmakers to intervene on her behalf in a Facebook post on Jan. 7.

Rather than rushing to support the supposed opposition activist turned paramedic, many Ukrainians bitterly scoffed at the notion that Leonova’s help was needed in the first place.

A social media post by Ukrainian blogger Anna Amargo telling all Russians “don’t come to Ukraine” quickly went viral drawing nearly 3,500 likes within a few hours. While some Russian figures hit back at Amargo, saying her comments were no different from the hateful propaganda promoted by the Kremlin, other Russians sided with her and lambasted Leonova.

Journalist Sergei Loiko, famous for his coverage of the battle for Donetsk Airport, dismissed Leonova as a “groupie” who had gone to Ukraine for insincere reasons in a blog post on Jan. 10.

Just as rock bands have groupies, he said, so too do military units, and “their groupies are often in uniform (they think they look good like this, and this is sexy). So what is important here? It is necessary to be able to tell the difference between volunteers and groupies.”

Alexander Valov, a Russian fighter with the Azov Battalion, had only words of indignation for those complaining about Leonova’s arrest.

Despite her claims of being affiliated with the Azov Regiment, he said, “nobody in Azov knows her. Definitely not in the Azov regiment. And we don’t wear fur and drink wine, that’s not our style. … Azov is also a city in the Rostov Oblast (of Russia), in case anybody didn’t know. Maybe she’s connected to that somehow and not our regiment?” Valov joked.

Kyiv Post staff writer Allison Quinn can be reached at [email protected]