Russian justice announced on Wednesday the 13th that an artist had been arrested in a supermarket for replacing product labels with messages containing “false” information about Moscow’s military offensive in Ukraine.

Petersburg court’s communications service stated that Alexandra Skochilenko will be held in precautionary detention until May 31 and is accused of spreading “false information” about the Russian army.

According to the same source, the artist “intentionally placed pieces of paper on price tags containing false information about the use of the Russian armed forces” in a supermarket.

“This is a serious crime,” he added, estimating that the artist was “motivated by political hostility towards Russia.”

This arrest, and the words used to describe it, reflect an increasingly hostile mood in Russia to any voice opposing Moscow’s military offensive in Ukraine since February 24.

Under a recent law, publishing information about the military that is deemed “false” by the authorities is punishable by 10 years or even 15 years in prison if it has “serious consequences” for the military.

Describing himself as an “independent artist”, Skochilenko has repeatedly criticized the occupation of Ukraine on social media.

He was fined last month for protesting the attack.