Masked Ukrainian security personnel in full riot gear, camouflage, and firearms smashed their way inside Viktor's messy flat in Kharkiv, Ukraine's northern metropolis.
After police said were his social media posts applauding Russian President Vladimir Putin for fighting with the Nazis, asking for areas to secede and naming the national flag a sign of death, the middle-aged man came to the notice of Ukraine's Security Service, the SBU.
Ukraine 's Anti-collaboration Law Leads to Detain 400 Traitors
Viktor was one of roughly 400 persons jailed in the Kharkiv region alone under anti-collaboration measures drafted hastily by Ukraine's parliament and ratified by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy following Russia's incursion on February 24.
For working with Russian soldiers, making public denials about Russian aggression, or supporting Moscow, offenders risk up to 15 years in jail. Anyone whose activities result in the death of another person might incur the death penalty.
Despite widespread support for the Zelenskyy administration, including among many Russian speakers, not all Ukrainians oppose the invasion. Some Russian-speaking citizens of the Donbas, an industrial area in the east, are more supportive of Moscow. Even before this year's invasion, an eight-year battle between Moscow-backed rebels and Ukrainian government forces had killed nearly 14,000 people, Washington Post reported.
Some businesses, civic and governmental leaders, and military personnel have defected to Russia, according to Ukraine's State Bureau of Investigations, which has initiated over 200 criminal investigations related to collusion. Zelenskyy has even demoted two SBU generals for treason.
Ukraine Bans 11 Pro-Russian Parties
According to Oleksiy Danilov, the director of Ukraine's Security Council, a register of collaborators is being established and will be made public. He wouldn't disclose how many people were targeted throughout the country.
Under martial control, authorities have outlawed 11 pro-Russian political organizations, including the Opposition Platform For Life, which was formed by Viktor Medvedchuk, an imprisoned tycoon with close links to Putin, and held 25 members in the 450-member parliament. Authorities claim that pro-Russian volunteers in southern Ukraine, where conflict is raging, are working as spotters for bombardment, as per AP News.
Since the new laws were passed, human rights activists have reported dozens of detentions of pro-Russian activists in Kyiv alone, but it's unclear how many have been targeted nationwide, according to Volodymyr Yavorskyy, coordinator at the Center for Civil Liberties, one of Ukraine's largest human rights organizations.
Volodymyr Yavorskyy said that a person in Ukraine can be imprisoned for up to 30 days without a court order; and under martial rule, officials are prohibited from informing defense counsel about their clients' custody.
The Ukrainian government is well aware of the consequences of arresting individuals for their beliefs, particularly the possibility of feeding Moscow's narrative that Kyiv is suppressing Russian speakers. Officials warn that, in times of conflict, freedom of speech is only one element of the problem.
Mayor Anatoly Fedoruk of Bucha, which has become a symbol of the war's heinous violence, said some collaborators gave invading troops the names and addresses of pro-Ukrainian activists and officials in the city outside Kyiv, with hundreds of civilians shot to death or their bodies burned by Russian forces, according to Global News.
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