A doctor accused of criticizing the war in Ukraine to a patient has been jailed for five-and-a-half years after being convicted of spreading false information about the Russian military.

Dr Nadezhda Buyanova, 68, was arrested in February after Anastasia Akinshina, the mother of one of her patients, reported the pediatrician to the authorities.

Ms Akinshina claimed Buyanova told her and her son that his father, a Russian soldier who was reportedly killed in Ukraine, was a legitimate target for troops in Kiev and blamed Moscow for the war.

The move is part of a relentless crackdown on dissent by the Kremlin.

Buyanova, who was born in western Ukraine, has denied the allegation, insisting she never said what she was accused of saying. In a tearful closing statement to the court last week, she asked the court to acquit her.

Her defense argued that the prosecution did not present evidence that the alleged conversation took place, including any recordings of it, and argued that her accuser fabricated the story out of animosity toward Ukrainians, according to independent news site Mediazona.

In her closing statement to the court, Buyanova said it was “painful” to read the charges in the indictment and she broke down.

“A doctor, especially a pediatrician, is not capable of wishing harm to a child, its mother, or to traumatize the child’s psyche. Only a monster is capable of that – and the words I said,” Mediazona said.

Her lawyer, Oscar Cherdzhyev, later told reporters that the verdict was “unexpectedly harsh” and “monstrously cruel”.

“We didn’t expect that,” he said.

“Spreading false information” about the military has been a crime in Russia since March 2022, when the Kremlin passed a series of laws banning any public expression about the invasion that deviated from the official narrative.

The authorities began to actively use them against critics and protesters.

According to OVD-Info, one of Russia’s main rights groups that tracks political arrests, more than 1,000 people have been involved in criminal cases on charges related to speaking out or acting against the war.