On Sunday, May 17, at 8:00 p.m. (London time), the premiere of the film “Try Me for Treason” will be streamed live on YouTube, a collection of speeches delivered by anti-war activists who were arrested in Russia or in the occupied territories of Ukraine and sentenced to symbolically harsh penalties for engaging in acts of protest or civil disobedience—in some cases, merely for sharing opinions on social media that the regime deemed “extremist” and equated with terrorism.
Among the testimonies—that is, the spontaneous statements of the convicted, the so-called “last words” granted by the court at the end of a political trial whose verdict is already written and concerns mainly how harsh the sentence will be—there are cases both well-known and less well-known to Western media.
The voices belong to the artist Bohdan Ziza, a Ukrainian from Crimea, sentenced to 15 years for defacing an administrative building belonging to the occupying authorities with the Ukrainian national colors; Darya Zozyreva, a student who was still a minor at the time of the events, sentenced to 2 years and 8 months for publicly expressing her dissent through poems and social media posts and for removing stickers bearing the letter “Z”; she was also barred from pursuing university studies; Igor Paskar, sentenced to 8 years and 6 months for “terrorism” for setting fire to a war propaganda banner and throwing two Molotov cocktails at an FSB office, causing minor damage to the facade; and Andrei Trofimov, sentenced to 13 years in prison for his anti-war posts and his attempt to enlist in the Free Russians Legion in Ukraine.
The film was produced by the Ukraine Information Group, a group of British activists dedicated to reporting on the war outside the state propaganda channels on both sides, with a particular focus on what is happening in the occupied territories.
The film project began as a cinematic adaptation of the book of the same name published by the group in November 2025, and was funded through proceeds from the book’s sales. Although we have not had the opportunity to preview the film, we believe it serves as a valuable resource for hearing the voices of Russian dissidents who are paying the price of repression—a way to keep their memory alive and inspire acts of solidarity.
More information at https://ukraine-solidarity.org/voices-against-putins-war/