As Ukraine searches for traitors, fears of Russian infiltration spread eastward, far from the capital.
The atmosphere of paranoia is most in eastern Ukraine, where accusations of betrayal perpetrated by locals divide recently occupied communities like Kutuzivka, a once-sleepy hamlet east of Kharkiv with visible indications of a recent Russian presence.
When Reuters visited the village at the end of May, Ukrainian troops were still battling off a near-constant barrage of artillery fire from Russian troops north of the village.
When Russian troops landed in Kutuzivka in early March, they promptly installed a puppet government.
Nataliia Kyrychenko, a 55-year-old local farm owner, was sheltering in her house with several neighbours when Russian forces arrived. According to villagers, a Russian commander led Kyrychenko and her neighbours out onto the street and informed them that the community would now be led by a local woman named Nadiia Antonova.
Kyrychenko claimed that Russian forces interrogated her for two days about her son-in-law, who works in Ukrainian law enforcement. According to Kyrychenko, the soldiers told her that Antonova had informed them about her son-in-law and accused her of operating as a spotter for Ukrainian troops, entrusted with tracking Russian soldiers’ activities.
‘I honestly didn’t think I’d come back when the Russian soldiers carried me away,’ she added. ‘I couldn’t believe someone in our neighbourhood would report me in.’
Kyrychenko was eventually released.
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