Rumors of traitors are spreading, as the invading forces seem to have known in advance which residents have guns and which are said to be rich.
Destroyed Ukrainian tank in Chernihiv, Ukraine, on April 23. (Wojciech Grzedzinski for The Washington Post)
IVANIVKA, Ukraine – Olena peered out of her bedroom window to see what her neighbor, a tall man nicknamed Girovka, looked like, got out of a car with Russian markings and began sending rockets into the night sky by the side of the road. The next day, Russian tanks and armored vehicles emerged from the forest in a long column, descending to this small village about 60 miles south of the Russian border, by the same route.
Days later, after Russia’s retreat from northern and central Ukraine, four investigators from the Security Service of Ukraine entered the living room of 66-year-old Olena. She told them what she had seen and showed them where Girovka had stood and fired the rockets. Other neighbors told investigators that Girovka was seen walking towards and from Ukrainian positions minutes before they were fired upon by Russian forces.
No one in the village has seen the neighbor since.
– Maybe they did it for money? Olena, who was identified by the Washington Post only by her own name out of fears of possible revenge against her, told the suspects in co-operation with Russia. “They promised them something. I wonder how it is possible to sell your conscience and dignity. I do not know. Do not understand it.”
In the small towns and villages of Ukraine that fell under Russian occupation in February and March and have since been liberated, the fog of war has been replaced by the fog of conspiracy and suspicion. Weeks later, citizens across the country spoke in muted tones about people who believe they have sold their neighbors and whether they may have done so voluntarily or under duress.
Ukraine’s armed forces have declined to say how many Ukrainians accused of collaborating with Russia have been identified or detained. The Associated Press reported that about 400 people in the Kharkiv region suspected of collaborating have been detained and may be prosecuted under new laws that provide for any action in aid of Russian forces that results in the death of Ukrainians, punishable by death. with life imprisonment.
Latest updates from the war in Ukraine
Dmitry Ivanov, deputy head of the Chernihiv Regional Civil-Military Administration, said security services were investigating cases of alleged collaborators marking Ukrainian positions with phosphorus that could be identified from the sky and helping Russians direct artillery fire in Ukrainian. positions. He said others had taken the Russians to food and supply depots. In some cases, he said, staff members accepted food or money from Russians in exchange for information.
“We assume that these people are still here,” Ivanov said. “Currently, the special security services are working on the issue. There are not so many cases among the locals, because the communities here are stronger and more united than ever. ”
In villages northeast of Ukraine’s Nikolaev, a city of about 500,000 near the Black Sea coast, Russian occupiers were driven out in less than two weeks. But discontent and rumors of possible local collaborators remained.
In Piski, which has about 800 residents, a man greeted Washington Post reporters, telling them the city was full of “Russians,” a term Ukrainians coined as shorthand for “Russian fascists.” He said most locals support Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Russian Ukrainian president who was ousted during the country’s 2014 revolution.
In March, invading troops made Piski’s school their base. People in the city still accuse the school principal of unlocking the doors of the Russians and passing information to them. The Post could not independently verify these allegations.
“When the Russians came, she told them, ‘Oh, we’ve been waiting for you for eight years to bring order!'” Said Marina Polishuk, a 70-year-old resident, raising her voice to imitate the woman. .
“Then, after they left, she said, ‘Oh, I just didn’t get it,'” Polishuk said. “You live in Ukraine and you do not understand? Come on. “
One body at a time, Kiev Coroner documented the death toll in Ukraine
In many cases, the stories of alleged collaborators are less specific. Rumors and accusations take on a life of their own, as they are told by emotional locals who are often traumatized and may seem suspicious almost to the point of paranoia. Villagers in Berezanka, near Chernihiv, told The Post about an employee of the State Forest Resources Agency, whose home was attacked by Russian forces. They took a number of weapons, acting on a signal received from a local collaborator, according to a frequent local rumor. Other locals said that in fact, officer Oleh Nechipurenko voluntarily offered his weapon to the Russians. He was arrested by Ukrainian security agents, they said.
Nechipurenko, 50, said none of this was true. Visited by a reporter at home with his wife, son and two dogs, he said the Russians had come and taken his only weapon – a small-caliber shotgun – before leaving peacefully. He said Ukrainian police later questioned him but did not detain him.
One thing seemed strange to him, he said: the Russians visited only two houses on his street – those with registered firearms (Ukrainians are required to register all firearms with local authorities).
“I’m not sure who did it, but it looks like someone warned them,” Nechipurenko said.
In nearby Yahidne, a 50-year-old married couple said Russian soldiers came straight to their home when they entered the village, stormed the house and sheltered them for money, jewelry and other valuables. The Minenki are considered wealthy in the village of about 300 people; they believe the Russians had inside information about their status.
After breaking into their home, Russian soldiers used the floor as a toilet before leaving, said Vitaly Minenko, 58. Peasants who dared to take to the streets were forced to sing the Russian national anthem and were threatened with death if they stopped singing. , he said.
“The war showed who is who, the other side of the personalities,” Minenko told his neighbors. “What we thought was good turned out to be bad. He who was angry became good. “
There was a poster at the Piski school praising local men and women who served in the Ukrainian army fighting in the eastern Donbass region against Russian-backed separatists in 2014. Polishuk’s son, Yevhen Kostenyuk, was one of those pictured.
His service ended in 2017, and he said he did not know that the photo and his name had been posted at the school until Russian soldiers removed him from his mother’s home. He was held for 24 hours, beaten and tortured, he said. He was then taken to a forest in a nearby town and shot, he said.
Kostenyuk said he fell to the ground and remained motionless after the bullet hit his shoulder; he eventually bit his lung, but didn’t kill him. Russian troops apparently thought he was dead. He was left there, and when he heard the sound of the car doors closing and then the tires rolling, he jumped up and finally found a stranger who was ready to help, he said. The stranger helped him tie his shoulder to stop the bleeding, then took him to a Ukrainian military checkpoint.
Polishuk said the school principal left the city when the Russians did, but then returned.
“I told her there would be no life after the war,” Polishuk said. “I will strangle her with my own hands.”
Sergei Morgunov in Yahidne and Sergei Korolchuk in Berezanka contributed to this report.
Add Comment