In the common image of Poles the image of Ukrainians was established in a negative attitude towards Russians. In specified perception there is no place for shades of grayness, there are slogans about “the formation of a political nation”, “quickly progressive derusification” and hatred caused by Russian savagery. Sometimes, a small quiet, it is mentioned about collaborators, supporters of the “Russian Mirus”, stressing that this is simply a definite minority. Determined or not, the effects of traitors are highly tragic.
On October 5, 2023, Russian Iskander struck the village of Groza in the Kharkiv region. The rocket hit a building where a wake was held, killing 59 people. mostly civilians, one-sixth of the population of horror, all 3rd adult resident.
The Mass Death of Neighbors
The Russian accounts on the Telegram rapidly revealed that the mark of the attack was the farewell battalion officers "Ajdar". The formation, which caught Moskalom under the skin inactive in 2014, importantly contributes to limiting the territorial expansion of the alleged Novorostia. Ukrainian sources confirmed that there was a ceremony of a fallen military in the village. A repeat ceremony involving the exhumation of the body of an officer who died at the beginning of a full-scale invasion. The horror was then under Russian occupation, so the soldier was buried in Dniepra – and only in the autumn of 2024 was laid in the hometown. In the Russian attack on mourners, the boy of the fallen, besides a soldier of the Ukrainian army, died.
Shortly after the tragedy, the inhabitants of Horror had no uncertainty that individual had informed the Russians about the funeral. individual local, oriented in the process of the ceremony. These assumptions were confirmed by the safety Service of Ukraine (SBU), indicating 2 brothers. Men had already worked openly with the Russians during the occupation. After the liberation of Groza they fled to Russia, but continued collecting information, calling and writing to relatives and acquaintances. That's how they learned about the ceremony and contributed to the mass death of their old neighbors.
Vehicle adapted to launch chopper missiles, Torecka area in Ukraine, 19 August 2024.
I am not acquainted with the present destiny of the traitor brothers, but it is worth noting that being in Russian controlled areas does not mean impunity. judaic Ananiewski, 1 of the organizers of the Berdian Correctional Colony, found this to be true. Male especially violent abuse of captured soldiers of the Ukrainian army, hence interest in military intelligence (HUR). On May 5, 2024, the collaborator's car blew up. "As a consequence of the explosion, active in the execution of Ukrainian prisoners of judaic Ananiewski was liquidated. The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine recalls that for each war crime there will be a fair payment,” the message was published on the HUR website.
They don't feel like traitors
When considering the sources of collaboration, attention should be paid to the peculiarities of Ukrainian society. It besides consists of “Russian people”, Ukrainian citizens rooted in Russian culture, emotionally related to it. presently disappointed in Russia and its actions in Ukraine. On the war line, they are alternatively people who support Ukraine, but who distance themselves from its ethnos and build a pro-state attitude based on local patriotism. Odessa and the Kharkiv are full of specified people. The concept of local patriotism is not new. In our part of Europe – mostly distanced from nationalisms – the thought is to build social cohesion. In Ukraine, with its nationalist consolidation, odska orchark "rusko-Ukrainianity" forced by the Russians, it is rather a peculiar phenomenon.
No little peculiar – if individual does not know the east mentality – is the fatalism there. It's making peace with fate, no substance what. In the villages close Kharkiv, the Russian army behaved scandalously. Robbery was common, but locals talk about it calmly, a kind of knowing for the "obvious" aspects of war reality. Stealing? They stole. They wouldn't let the dead be buried in graveyards? Well, they wouldn't let it; you had to bury your loved ones in the backyards by the house. All of this was not comfortable, but “it was possible to survive.” Without knowing specified a way of thinking, it is impossible to realize the social climate of east Ukraine, where pro-Russian sympathy is inactive present.
Odessa and the Kharkiv weren't targets. mass Russian terror. In the first town, the port and surrounding areas endure the most, in the second North Saltówka, a territory that is like a ‘city shield’, on which the Russian armored tops broke their teeth. Conscious of the “Russianity” of the 2 metropolises, the Moskals apply a strategy of selective panic to them. Rockets fall regularly on the Kharkivs, but mapping of blast sites leads to the conclusion that the densely populated center remains safe. At the same time, there is inactive a pro-Russian agent in both cities who is easy lost in a crowd of “Russian people” and whose members are not peculiarly outraged by the universal cognition of the Putinian army's crimes. It is from specified people – collaborators who do not feel like collaborators at all – the Russians learn about valuable goals.
Hostages of tragic circumstances
Kiev has been struggling with the problem of collaboration since 2014. By the time the full-scale war broke out, Ukrainian courts issued 30 convictions a month, mainly to those cooperating with the Russians in Donbasa. After February 24, 2022, this number increased to 70 judgments. The nature of the penalties has besides changed, previously in the majority of the ‘hinges’ rulings, and in the case of 2 thirds of the sentences, absolute imprisonment is presently being imposed. And this percent would most likely be higher if it were not for the fact that any of the proceedings were carried out in absentia, for those in Russian territory or controlled by Russians.
Previously, cases were conducted on the basis of respective different paragraphs, since March 2022, the Ukrainian Criminal Code has featured "collaborative activity" as a stand-alone category of crime. Thus, for cooperation with the aggressor state, its armed and paramilitary formations, or the business administration, as well as for preaching views justifying the Russian assault, a punishment of 10 to 15 years imprisonment is envisaged. Additional sanctions include the deprivation of the right to take office in the administration and confiscation of assets.
It is unclear on the basis of which procedures of peculiar services of Ukraine destruct the most active collaborators operating in occupied areas. At least 30 people have been killed so far. The most spectacular is the assassination of Kiril Stremousov, a deputy of the Kherson business administration, who said goodbye to life in November 2022. There is no death punishment in Ukraine, so we are dealing with hood courts. deficiency of transparency raises concerns about the regulation of law, but these are usually raised outside Ukraine. Over the Dnieprem, there is simply a large deal of approval to destruct traitors, and the effects of SBU and HUR operations propose that both services have an extended network of informants in areas occupied by the Russians. Which is besides evidence of supporting the thought of assassination.
The Ukrainian public besides has no objection to the harsh treatment of people driving the fire of Russian artillery; in a common perception the transmission of coordinates is considered a crime. Opinions on the attitudes of residents of occupied areas are more nuanced. The humanitarian reasons are all the more important, the longer the business takes. It is hard to persist in rule and keep loyalty on all levels erstwhile there is no real possible of fast liberation. And erstwhile the occupier insists on submission, threatening with severe consequences in the event of obstruction and rebellion. Ukrainian authorities, but besides average people surviving in free Ukraine, are aware of this. This results in allowing cooperation with the Russians, if it does not mean acting straight against Ukraine. In the event of liberation, officials, firefighters or doctors will so be treated as "presumers of tragic circumstances". Like average citizens, they are forced to accept abroad passports. Kiev allows to accept Russian citizenship for safety reasons.
