Detention: In July 2023, Crimean entrepreneur Dmytro Kozlia was detained by FSB officers of the Russian Federation in occupied Crimea. He was taken into custody and placed in a pre-trial detention centre as part of a criminal case on charges of alleged repeated 'discrediting of the Russian army' through anti-war posts and comments on the social network Facebook.

Sentence: On October 19, 2023, the so-called Kyiv District Court of Simferopol sentenced Dmytro Kozlia to 1 year of imprisonment in a general regime penal colony under Article 280.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. On December 5, 2023, the occupying Supreme Court of Crimea upheld this sentence. The Crimean fully served the unlawful sentence and, according to human rights defenders, was released on May 21, 2024.

Dmytro Fedorovych Kozlia was born on January 1, 1979, and lived in Simferopol for a long time. Before the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the subsequent wave of information space purges, Dmytro was a completely non-public person. His name did not appear in political statements, he was not part of national or religious movements on the peninsula, and he focused all his efforts on developing a small business and supporting his family.

In Simferopol, Dmytro Kozlia had a private business in the entertainment and leisure industry. He owned and managed several commercial outlets operating within local parks of culture and recreation. Additionally, according to open data registers, Dmytro was mentioned among the co-founders and owners of a small private enterprise providing civil construction and repair services on the peninsula.

The full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine on February 24, 2022, drastically changed the attitude of many Crimeans towards the events around them. Despite the prolonged and total censorship imposed by the occupying authorities since 2014, Dmytro Kozlia could not remain indifferent. He began expressing his disagreement with the Kremlin's aggressive actions and sympathy for the war victims on his personal Facebook page, leaving anti-war comments and criticizing the actions of Russian military forces in mainland Ukraine.

In the spring of 2022, new legislation was swiftly adopted in the territory of the Russian Federation and annexed Crimea, aimed at fully criminalizing any criticism of the war. This refers to the emergence of administrative Article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation (so-called 'discrediting the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation').

In May 2022, the Kyiv District Court of Simferopol reviewed the first administrative protocol drawn up by law enforcement against Dmytro Kozlia. The entrepreneur was found guilty and fined a significant administrative penalty of 45,000 Russian rubles.

Paying the fine did not stop the pressure on the Simferopol resident. Aggressive collaborationist platforms resisting pro-Ukrainian citizens were deployed in occupied Crimea. The leading role in this process was played by the Telegram channel 'Krymsky Smerch', administered by pro-Russian blogger Oleksandr Talipov from Feodosia. This resource specializes in organizing harassment, identifying anti-war publications by local residents, and writing public denunciations to the FSB and the Center for Countering Extremism (Center 'E').

Dmytro Kozlia's surname reappeared in pro-war public forums in the summer of 2023. The occupying special services monitored his online activity and recorded that the Crimean continued to express disagreement with the actions of the occupying army for a year after the first fine. According to current Russian legislation, a repeated violation under this article within a year automatically transforms from an administrative offense into a full-fledged criminal offense.

In July 2023, Dmytro Kozlia was detained and placed in a pre-trial detention centre. This case became one of the first precedents on the peninsula where citizens were punished for anti-war posts not with monetary fines but with actual imprisonment in criminal proceedings.

Dmytro was taken into custody directly in the courtroom. Attempts by the defense to appeal the sentence proved futile. The Crimean fully served the sentence determined by the occupiers.

Information used from open sources: Krym.Realii, Suspilne Krym, Human Rights Project 'Support for Political Prisoners. Memorial'.

Date of update: 11.07.2026.