A Russian volunteer who helped Ukrainian refugees fleeing the war has complained of severe pain in her head and body while in a pretrial detention centre, according to a letter sent to her relatives seen by Novaya Gazeta Europe.
Nadezhda Rossinskaya, an anti-war volunteer who also goes by the name Nadine Geisler, was detained in February and charged with “public calls for action against state security” following allegations that she called for donations to the Armed Forces of Ukraine in social media posts.
In the letter, Geisler complained of severe headaches, tachycardia and deteriorating vision.
“I get up and everything goes dark, I get waves of weakness, a form of tachycardia. Sometimes the weakness is so bad that my legs shake and I have to hold on to something. Physical activity causes sharp pain in the shoulders, neck, head, face,” Rossinskaya wrote.
At one point an ambulance was called for Rossinskaya, she writes, and the medics suggested she might have elevated intracranial pressure and recommended a medical examination, which the prison guards denied, instead giving her a painkiller that she had been requesting for three days.
Rossinskaya founded NGO Army of Beauties following the Russian invasion of Ukraine to help Ukrainian refugees return home from Russia via the last open checkpoint between the two countries in Kolotilovka, in Russia’s southwestern Belgorod region.
Rossinskaya left Russia for Georgia in 2023 out of fears for her safety but decided to return less than a year later in order to organise a complex evacuation, according to her friends.
If convicted, Rossinskaya faces up to 6 years in prison, according to her lawyer. She denies the charges.