An American woman who volunteered for Ukraine’s Territorial Defense Forces and has served as its English-language spokesperson has been sentenced in absentia to 20 years in jail by a Russian “court.” The supreme court of the Donetsk People’s Republic in occupied Ukraine found Sarah Ashton-Cirillo, 47, guilty of being a mercenary for Kiev and of spreading false information. The “Donetsk People’s Republic” is a front for the Russian occupation and is only recognized by Vladimir Putin and his allies as a country. Ashton Cirillo, who is transgender and from Las Vegas, originally traveled to Ukraine in 2022 to cover the Russian invasion for LGBTQ Nation. After a few months, she quit her job and volunteered to fight with TDF, and was named a spokesperson in 2023. She began documenting Russian disinformation in a YouTube show called “Russia Hates the Truth,” which landed her a Russian government list of “extremists and terrorists.” After a dispute over her videos with then-U.S. Sen. JD Vance, Ashton-Cirillo was briefly suspended as the TDF’s spokesperson before being cleared and eventually moving on to a new role. As of last month, she was still in Ukraine promoting crowdfunding campaigns for wounded soldiers. She has now been added to a Russian wanted list.
Read it at The Daily Mail
