On the third day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the mayor of Kupyansk received a call from the commander of the Russian army with a proposal to talk.
Russian forces were already on the outskirts of the city, in the northeastern Kharkiv region. Mayor Gennady Matsegora released a video address explaining that he had accepted a Russian offer.
“I have decided to take part in negotiations to avoid losing my life,” he said. Matsegora handed over the city to Russian control without a fight. He later claimed to have provided transport, housing, fuel and food for Russian soldiers.
He is now one of hundreds of Ukrainian citizens accused of collaborating with the invading army and could face up to 15 years in prison. Kupyansk is still under Russian occupation, so Matsegora has not been arrested, but in places where the Russians have been expelled, Ukrainian authorities have already arrested collaboration suspects.
Ukraine’s chief prosecutor, Irina Venediktov, said in early May that there were more than 700 cases of treason against Ukrainian citizens and another 700 cases of co-operation. In the besieged Kharkiv region alone, prosecutors said they had already filed 50 cases, including against seven police officers, five mayors and a judge. They are all accused of paving the way for Moscow to occupy villages and kill dozens of people.
“Half of those 50 people have been arrested. The rest, unfortunately, remain in the occupied territories and have not yet been arrested, “said Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor General Alexander Filchakov.
The region’s governor, Oleh Sinegubov, said there are various forms of co-operation, such as passing on information. “This may include giving the Russians lists of those locals who are in the army, the families of the military or people who are veterans of [Donbas] war, “he said.
Filchakov claims that there are cases of collaborators handing over lists of rich locals to the Russians. “They explained to the occupiers where they lived and what wealth they had. So later, Russian soldiers came to these houses with the collaborators and stole their property.
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In the village of Yuzhno, the chairman of the council was arrested for attempting to collaborate. Prosecutors said they had found evidence that he was in a relationship with Russian agents.
“He was preparing for the occupation. But the Russians never arrived there, and we arrested him a few days after the invasion, “said Maxim Klimovets, a district prosecutor in the Kharkiv region.
It is important for the Ukrainian authorities to show that the punishment for those who helped the Russian invasion will be swift and severe. But at the same time, the process comes with very difficult questions.
These include whether prosecutors and judges in Ukraine, who have been battling allegations of corruption and nepotism for years, can be trusted not to abuse the process. Many high-ranking officials may also be asked about negligence at the beginning of the invasion or even about treason.
On Sunday, President Vladimir Zelensky said accusations of negligence or worse could spread right to the top of government structures when he fired the head of the SBU’s security service in Kharkov during a visit to the city. Zelenski accused the man of “thinking only of himself” instead of helping defend the city during the first days of the war. “Law enforcement will investigate his motives,” Zelenski said.
Another problem is how to evaluate the various forms of cooperation and make sure that the penalties are appropriate. “There are people who were looking forward to joining the other army, there are people who cooperated because they wanted to save their lives, and there are people who were forced to cooperate with weapons,” said Ilko Bozhko, a Ukrainian military official. . from the Eastern Operational Command.
Ukrainian prosecutors face a particularly difficult task in the occupied regions of southern Ukraine, which were seized by the Russians at the start of the war. There, Russian officials are busy trying to impose Russian rule on everyday life, such as moving Ukrainian schools to the Russian curriculum.
If Ukraine regains control of these territories, there may be thousands of people who have committed actions that fall under the technical definition of cooperation, such as teachers who continue to work on the new curriculum. But many believe prosecutors should be lenient when it comes to such cases.
“This is a very difficult and painful issue,” said Sergei Gorbachev, Ukraine’s education ombudsman. “It’s very difficult to decide where the line is. I don’t think you can demand heroism from unarmed civilians. The most important thing is not to cooperate voluntarily. When we remove the occupiers from all over our land, I expect big problems on how we will solve this issue. “
Vladimir Ariev, a member of the European Solidarity party led by former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, said he hoped parliament would draft a new co-operation law that would allow for swift and effective punishment, but also prevent abuse and bring order. cases of severity.
“We need to be able to establish the level of cooperation as well as the level of damage caused and be able to differentiate between different cases,” he said. “Some people have to go to jail, but some just have to be fined or banned from public service.
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