“I admire Putin, he is a great leader”

One of those cases is that of Viktoriia Khvyla 52-year-old woman who is serving a life sentence after providing information about Ukrainian military positions in the Cherkasy region in 2023, an area that, despite not being in the center of the battle, has been a frequent target of Russian attacks with drones and missiles.

La historia de Khvyl reflects a constant pattern in many of those convictedwho have been seduced by the effects of the propaganda messages issued by the Russian media, in clear consonance with the interests of the Kremlin.

This influence of the Russian media has even led thousands of Ukrainian citizens to idolize the Russian president, Vladimir Putindespite the damage caused to Ukrainian territory since the start of the war.

In an interview conducted in a Ukrainian prison by the English media The TimesKhvyl acknowledged having built his vision from documentaries broadcast on Russian state television, without having visited the country in decades. “I admire Putin, he is a great leader,” he said.

In parallel, this prisoner, accused of having collaborated with the Russian army, explained that she has not visited the country during Putin’s presidency, in power for 26 years, since his last visit to Russia was before the 2000s.

However, Khvyl’s is not an isolated case. According to the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office, more than 1,100 convictions for collaboration have been recorded in the last year alone.

Among those convicted, there are diverse profiles. From those who did it for money to citizens who collaborated with the Kremlin for ideological reasons.

Deer propaganda

The misinformation promoted by the Russian media has played a fundamental role in these testimonies. Iryna Landiga, another inmate sentenced to life in prison for collaboration with the Russian army, is a good example of how far these speeches can penetrate.

Landiga, 60, a former resident of Donetsk, a city in eastern Ukraine occupied by Russian forces since 2014, was convicted of leaking information about the location of kyiv forces.

This woman, also interviewed by The Times in another women’s prison, repeated one of the most repeated slogans for Russian disinformation, accusing the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyto be a “nazi“, something Putin has constantly repeated since the start of the war.

In addition to accusing the Ukrainian leader of being “Nazi”, he also expressed his admiration for historical figures such as Josef Stalinconsidered one of the most brutal dictators in history, despite the fact that he deported his grandfather from Crimea to Central Asia.

In any case, Landiga justified the decision made by the Soviet dictator, who led the country from the Russian revolution until his death in 1953. “My grandfather was a traitor, Stalin did the right thing“he assured.

Landiga, a former coal mine employee in the Donbas region, also claimed to have frequently watched pro-Kremlin media.

In parallel, he reported that his one-year-old grandson had died as a result of Ukrainian bombing of Donetsk during fighting that broke out after Putin sent troops to support a separatist movement in 2014. This claim could not be verified.

His personal story, marked by the war in the east of the country, is mixed with a vision deeply aligned with Moscow, due to the propaganda broadcast by Russian state media.

An exchange program

To manage this reality, kyiv has developed a unique mechanism: the “” program (“I want to return to my people, in Spanish”). Through this initiative, convicted collaborators request their transfer to Russia.

In exchange for these citizens convicted of collaborating with the Kremlin, Ukraine achieves the release of citizens held by Moscowin a context in which at least 16,000 Ukrainian civilians remain detained in Russian territory.

The system, however, is not a prisoner exchange in the strict sense. The collaborators are not combatants, but condemned civilians, so they cannot legally be exchanged as prisoners of war.

The formula adopted is to allow them to leave Ukraine voluntarily; once in Russia, their sentences are annulled. More than 70 people have already been transferred under this schemewhile nearly a thousand have applied for the program.

The Ukrainian authorities defend its usefulness both to recover its citizens and to get rid of individuals considered disloyal in the middle of the war.

Furthermore, they maintain that the initiative has a deterrent effect on collaborating with Moscow, since these cooperators discover that Russia fails to deliver on bounty promises the protection

However, this program has drawn criticism from human rights organizations who warn that Ukrainian legislation on collaboration with the enemy may be too rigid.

For these Ukrainian NGOs, a distinction is not always made between those who acted voluntarily and those who did so under pressure or even forced in the different occupied territories.

The Ukrainian Government, for its part, maintains a firm position, since it considers that all those convicted have gone through judicial processes and must answer before the law for their actions.

Recruited by Putin

The case of Vladimir Muzyk24, who is serving a 12-year sentence for publicly supporting the invasion of Moscow, adds a more complex layer to the difficult situation in Ukraine with these supporters of the Russian invasion.

Muzyk, in words collected by The Timesclaimed to have family roots in Russia and his intention to “serve the Motherland”, even if this led to him being recruited by the Russian Armed Forces to confront his own country.

This young law graduate explained that, before the large-scale invasion, a Kremlin agent assigned him the task of creating profiles of officials in his hometown, Sverdlovska town in the east of Ukraine.

Asked in the interview if he would accept a trade for a prisoner held in Russia, even if it meant joining Putin’s army and sending him back to Ukraine with a gun in his hands, he responded be willing to do it”if it is the price of my freedom“.