Russia arrests a man for transferring cryptocurrency to Ukraine

A young man has been arrested in Russia for transferring a large amount of money in cryptocurrency to Ukraine, still invaded by his country.

Russian authorities allege the digital coins went straight to a wallet used to fund the Ukrainian army amid a bitter war that’s yet to come to an end.

Man jailed in Russia for crypto donation to the Ukrainian side

A resident of the Russian city of Barnaul, administrative center of the Altai Krai, has been detained for sending some 24 million rubles’ worth of crypto (over $310,000) to neighboring Ukraine.

Russian law enforcement claims the digital currency reached the Ukrainian military. On Friday, the local branch of the federal Investigative Committee took to Telegram to announce:

“In April 2025, the accused collected over 24 million rubles and used the funds to purchase cryptocurrency, which he deposited into a crypto wallet used to finance units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.”

The investigating authority, known as the $SKR, also alleged that the funds were intended for terrorist attacks and other crimes in the Russian Federation.

The 26-year-old man, whose identity was not revealed to the press, has been charged with financing terrorism, Gazeta.ru and other news outlets informed.

A district court in Barnaul has ordered him held in pretrial detention, the website revealed, quoting an announcement by the press service of the regional judiciary.

He is believed to have taken part in a conspiracy by a group of individuals, the report noted, without elaborating on the fate or whereabouts of the other participants.

In its Telegram post, the $SKR highlighted the seriousness of the crimes the man is accused of, pointing out that the financing of extremist activities is subject to criminal liability.

This isn’t the first case of a Russian prosecuted for providing support to the Ukrainian side in the conflict, which has been raging on for almost four years.

In another similar case, the Supreme Court of Crimea sentenced a female resident of the annexed peninsula to 17 years in prison.

According to Russian investigators, the woman sent a donation from her bank account for the purchase of drones for the Ukrainian forces.

A resident of the Samara region was sentenced for treason, receiving 10 years in prison for establishing ties with Ukraine’s special services.

Crypto turns into another front between Russia and Ukraine

The news of the arrest of the man in Barnaul comes after Russian authorities recently blacklisted a European crypto exchange with Ukrainian roots.

In January, the Prosecutor General’s Office in Moscow declared the activities of WhiteBIT “undesirable” in the Russian Federation.

Prosecutors accused the trading platform of processing illicit transactions and facilitating the withdrawal of funds from the country.

They also highlighted that the exchange has actively supported the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), including by raising and transferring donations.

In a statement, the Lithuania-registered WhiteBIT emphasized “it does not operate in the Russian market and has had no users or business activity there since 2022.”

At the same time, the exchange founded by Ukrainian entrepreneur Volodymyr Nosov acknowledged its cooperation with the authorities in Kyiv, including by providing technical support to the United24 crypto fundraising platform.

Nosov, who is also WhiteBIT’s chief executive, has been recognized and awarded for his efforts to promote crypto adoption in his native country through a number of partnerships and charitable initiatives.

Cryptocurrency usage in Ukraine and in Russia increased significantly since the beginning of the full-blown war, amid fiat currency restrictions and sanctions, respectively.

The invaded nation has been repeatedly among the world’s top crypto adopters, most recently in the 2025 Geography of Cryptocurrency report published by the blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis. Both former Soviet states have been taking recent steps to regulate their cryptocurrency markets.