Ukrainian security forces crack down on Russian collaborators

Diversion, sabotage, spreading propaganda—many Ukrainian citizens, especially those of Russian descent, continue to collaborate with the occupiers. Those committing the most grievous crimes cannot feel safe even after fleeing to Russia.

The Ukrainian prosecutor's office and security services have created special groups that are hunting down Russian agents, saboteurs, and traitors. They primarily target those who inform Russians about troop movements, the deployment of anti-aircraft systems, and rear depots. The services also aim to suppress pro-Russian propaganda spreaders.

Nearly daily, the Kharkiv prosecutor's office, which operates a unit against traitors, announces new charges and arrests. However, they do not release personal information about those arrested. The reason— for Kremlin sympathizers, they would become outright heroes.

While the Russian invasion has solidified the nation and created a sense of unity among Ukrainians, especially in the eastern part of the country, many Russian-speaking citizens still longingly look towards Moscow. They repeat slogans known from Russian media. Russia does much to ensure that Ukrainians receive messages aligned with the dictatorship's line. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov explained: "Not everyone understands, and it must be patiently explained to them."

Hence, information about the "Kyiv junta," the coup, and rigged elections are repeated like a mantra. In short, everything that could fuel animosity between Donbas and the rest of Ukraine.

During trips to Ukraine, many of my pro-Russian interlocutors echoed RIA Novosti's claims that Ukrainians themselves bomb apartment blocks and schools to blame the Russians. The Russian inscriptions on the missiles are supposedly fabricated by Ukrainian propaganda, and in reality, the buildings are blown up by "Kyivan fascists." Meanwhile, the captured Russian soldiers are believed to be played by Ukrainian actors. These same actors were also thought to be victims—this message peaked after the Bucha massacre.

The propaganda is so strong that it reaches far beyond the borders of Russia and Donbas. In Hungary and Serbia, there are many places where one can encounter expressions of sympathy for the Russians, even after subsequent war crimes were revealed.

Most identified collaborators with the Russians engage in minor acts of diversion and disseminate Russian propaganda. In early September, the regional prosecutor's office in Kharkiv issued a warrant for two women who began collaborating with the occupiers in 2022. They held propaganda meetings, distributed leaflets, and claimed that "Russia is here forever, and Ukraine as a country no longer exists," and that "Poland wants to reclaim its eastern territories." When Ukrainians recaptured the area in September 2022, the two women fled to the Russian Federation.

Not so fortunate was a collaborator leading the finance department of the Russian administration in Kupiansk during the city's occupation. She was arrested in 2023 for collaborating with the Russians.

On September 4, 2024, a 51-year-old woman was arrested who, during the occupation of Izium, worked as the head of the occupational post office. She voluntarily took on the position of "head of the postal communications department." During this time, she organized the distribution of propaganda newspapers through her subordinate mail carriers. These carriers distributed newspapers from Russia, presented as local press, supposedly published by local journalists— "Izium Telegraph" and "Kharkiv Z".

This pro-Kremlin press featured narratives about "liberating Ukraine from Nazis and fascists." It explained that the Russians came to Ukraine "to liberate the nation from the tyranny of the Kyiv regime." The woman was temporarily detained for two months.

Similarly, at the end of August in Kyiv, two men were arrested for installing cameras on several buildings, which transmitted real-time footage to Russia. This helped in recording the aftermath of airstrikes on the city and identifying the positions of air defence systems.

A man near Pokrovske operated similarly. The difference was that he installed cameras not on buildings but on roadside trees. Thanks to him, the Russians could track the movements of Ukrainian columns. He has already been sentenced to 13 years in prison.

A Russian who had lived in Ukraine for many years also carried out espionage tasks. A retired major of the Russian Aerospace Forces, a former Su-24 reconnaissance pilot, according to services: "collected information about the location of Ukrainian defenders and military equipment, then transmitted the collected information in the form of SMS and photos with appropriate geolocation marks." The retiree's location will be known for the next five years—prison. Importantly, both men worked for the cause for free.

Similarly, men caught by the police in early August were caught red-handed cutting the tires of military trucks. It turned out that they had been destroying Ukrainian equipment this way for several months. Both face up to 10 years in prison.

Government representatives exhibited a much higher level of treason. On September 3, an indictment was filed against Oleksandr Ponomariov, a deputy of the Ukrainian Parliament from the now-banned political party Opposition Platform—For Life, and his former assistant. They are both accused of financing activities aimed at overthrowing the constitutional order, seizing state power, and changing Ukraine's territorial boundaries and state borders.

Even worse off was the former mayor of Kupiansk, Hennadiy Macehora, who, in February 2022, sabotaged the city's defence and, after the entry of Russian forces, handed over all the supplies available to the city as part of Civil Defence. In July 2022, he moved to Russia, where he became the director of a sports centre in Stary Oskol. On June 8, 2024, agents of the Main Intelligence Directorate carried out an attack on Macehora. As a result of his injuries, he died three days later in a Moscow hospital.

This was not the first such case. In 2022, Ukrainian intelligence had already eliminated Lt. Col. Andrij Bezludko. The officer was born in central Ukraine, in Cherkasy, where Russian influence is much less significant than in Donbas. However, in 2014, he refused to fight Russian fighters near Donetsk and defected to the enemy.

In Russia, he rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel and became the deputy commander of the elite 70th Guards Motor Rifle Regiment, with which he entered Ukraine. Near Donetsk, he first worked in the regiment's staff, and after subsequent defeats, he moved to the front as the commander of a battalion tactical group. In a terse statement, Ukrainians announced: "the traitor of Ukraine has been eliminated."