Russian journalist, Maria Ponomarenko, has been sentenced to a five-year jail term and banned from media practice for the same period in a ruling by the Lenin district court, Barnaul. 

Ms Ponomarenko was arrested in April for her online postings, in accordance with laws enacted shortly after President Vladimir Putin ordered troops into Ukraine which made discrediting the armed forces a punishable offence. 

She was tried for accusing the Russian air force of bombing a theater in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol last year in the early stages of the ongoing invasion. The theatre had sheltered women and children from the war before an explosion took the building down with hundreds of casualties. 

The forces behind the attack remain unknown as both Kyviv and Moscow have traded allegations of bombing the civilian shelter. While Ukraine accused Russia’s air force, Moscow says the site was blown up by Ukraine nationalists. 

“Patriotism is love for the motherland, and love for one’s motherland should not be expressed by encouraging crime,” Ms Ponоmarenko told the court before the ruling. “Attacking your neighbor is a crime,” she added.