The Russian security service FSB arrested a man from Belgorod on Thursday by Nadine Geisler28, real name Nadezhda Rossinskayaa human rights organization Mediazona tells.
The FSB accuses Rossinskaya of collecting a monetary donation for the armed forces of Ukraine, Rossinskaya’s lawyer Yevgeny Sokolov told.
Rossinskaja founded a women’s volunteer movement called Army of Beauties in February 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine.
On Rossinskaja’s Instagram account, it is reported that the organization has delivered humanitarian aid to Ukrainian civilians in the Russian-occupied areas of eastern Ukraine. In addition, the organization has rescued pets from combat zones.
asked a representative of the Kaunottarien army organization for an interview.
The organization replied that it would not comment on Rossisskaya’s arrest, nor would it give interviews until the organization’s leader is released.
Helped Ukrainian civilians and animals
Rossinskaja’s friend, journalist Tatyana Grigoryeva denied Russian media according to Rossisskaya’s involvement in assisting the Ukrainian armed forces.
According to Grigorjeva, the Army of Beauties collected monetary donations on social media, but the money went exclusively to Ukrainian civilians and animals.
For example, the organization paid the accommodation costs and trips to Europe of Ukrainians who fled the occupied territories of Ukraine.
Rossinskaya traveled to Kharkiv for the first time in March 2022 after receiving a contact from a familiar Ukrainian woman who had lost her home in the Russian attack.
At the beginning of the war Russia fired Kharkov for almost two months until the Ukrainian army forced Russia to retreat in May 2022.
– I was horrified when I met mentally broken and abused people. They had spent several weeks in the cellars. They were hungry and cold. They told about the horror they had experienced after Russia invaded Ukraine. That’s when my life changed. I realized that I can’t be silent, but I have to do something, Rossinskaja told the opposition newspaper about her trip To Medusa in August.
According to reporter Grigorjeva, Rossinskaya has never participated in anti-war activities, but just a few days after her trip to Kharkiv, Rossinskaya and her sister Elena Egorova dressed in blue and yellow outfits and went to the central square of Belgorod to distribute seedlings to passers-by.
Following human rights issues OVD info according to the court sentenced each sibling to fines of 15,000 rubles (about 152 euros) for anti-war activities. The siblings appealed the court’s decision and the fine was cancelled.
Russia does not take kindly to the organization’s activities in Ukraine
In addition to the Army of Beauties organization, there are many other small and large organizations operating in Russia that have helped Ukrainians during the war.
Some of the organizations, such as the one helping Ukrainians We help escape organization, operates internationally. In addition to Russia, the organization has volunteers from European countries and the United States.
Most of the Russian aid organizations are small movements of a few people, where individual Russians help Ukrainians out of the middle of the war or try to deliver them humanitarian aid.
Russian organizations can help Ukrainians mainly in the territory occupied by Russia and in Russia, because according to Russian military law, aid delivered to the territory of Ukraine can be interpreted as “helping the enemy”.
When the Ukrainian counter-offensive began last summer and Ukraine began to retake areas from eastern Ukraine, Russian aid organizations were evicted, even if they had offered humanitarian aid on their own initiative.
The activities of the Army of Beauties were suppressed also because Russia no longer allowed the organization’s employees to cross the border into Ukraine.
Last summer, Russia also froze the organization’s accounts, which were used to collect aid for Ukrainian civilians.
In August, Rossinskaja told the opposition newspaper Meduza that when the Kharkiv region came under Ukrainian control, Russia began to see the organization’s work as a threat.
Journalist Antti Kuronen visited Kharkiv in September 2022. In the video, Kuronen talks about the retaliatory attacks that Russia carried out in Kharkiv after its retreat.
The Russian organization is suspected of having connections with the FSB
Rossinskaja has told to the Russian mediathat many Ukrainians do not welcome the help offered by the Russians.
Activist has toldthat he has been called the occupier of Kharkiv, for example.
According to critics, Rossinskaya and her 27-person team should have forced the Russian army to withdraw its troops from Ukraine instead of taking food to the Ukrainians.
In October 2022 Mediazona interviewed a Ukrainian Anastasia Bortnikiawhich ended up in Russia from Kharkiv with the help of the Army of Beauties.
At the end of August, shortly after his arrival, the FSB detained Bortnik for ten days.
At the same time that Anastasia Bortnik was in the detention center, Bortnik’s husband, at the time, was serving in the Ukrainian armed forces Nikolai Bortnik received a call from an unknown person. During the call, the Russian-speaking man threatened that Bortnik would no longer see his wife unless he revealed his own position.
Anastasia Bortnik believes that the Army of Beauties passed information on his location to the FSB.
Also in several Ukrainian languages on the sites there have been claims that Rossinskaya’s organization cooperates with the FSB.
The organization has denied the claims.
Helping the poodles led to an arrest
Media information According to the report, Rossinskaya fled Russia to Georgia in March 2023.
However, he returned to Russia at the end of the year to help transport pets rescued from Melitopol in southern Ukraine to Belgorod in Russia back to Ukraine.
Rossinskaya said on her Instagram in December that the Russian border authorities would not let 46 poodles, 20 shepherd dogs and two cats cross the border.
Border guards reasoned, that dogs could not be allowed across the border because they might be used in demining work.
On her social media, Rossisinskaya urged to file complaints about Belgorod customs officials.
Mediazona According to the report, Rossinskaja is now accused of inciting actions that threaten the security of the state.
In Russia, the crime can result in a prison sentence of up to seven years.
See also:
The documentary Kharkov in the legs of the war tells about life in Kharkov during the Russian invasion.
Ulkolinja’s documentary A city in the middle of war.