Russia’s Fifth Column in Ukraine Is Alive and Well
A year after the invasion, Ukraine is riddled with Russian collaborators and sympathizers.
By Stefanie Glinski, a journalist covering conflicts and crises with a focus on Afghanistan and the wider Middle East.
A sign at the entrance to Kherson, Ukraine, reads: "Do you know about a collaborator or traitor? Inform us."
A newly posted sign reads: “Do you know about a collaborator or traitor? Inform us," at the entrance to Kherson, Ukraine, on Nov. 21, 2022. Throughout the country—especially in recently liberated cities such as Kherson—posters encourage the civilian population to help. STEFANIE GLINSKI PHOTOS FOR FOREIGN POLICY
JANUARY 17, 2023, 3:06 PM
KHERSON, Ukraine—The sound of incoming and outgoing fire was almost constant as the older woman paused for a moment near Kherson’s main hospital, a shopping cart with several water bottles that she had just filled up at the riverbank of the Dnipro resting by her side.
“It was better when the Russians were here,” she said, and either way, “Crimea rightfully belongs to Russia.” She kept on, praising Putin, declining to share her name or to be photographed, and explaining that, at 75, she was still “young at heart” as several Ukrainian soldiers gathered around her. A missile hit nearby, loud and clear, and then another one. Moments later, the woman was off, pulling her two-wheeled cart along—and the soldiers had, in the meantime, already informed the police.
“Anyone can be a Russian collaborator or traitor—age, gender, or background doesn’t matter,” explained Maj. Serhiy Tsehotsky of the 59th Motorized Brigade, adding that it’s the police’s job, not the army’s, to “find out where she lives, who she talks to, and whether she’s involved in illegal
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