Tetyana Potapenko, a Ukrainian woman, is currently serving a five-year sentence for alleged collaboration with Russian forces during the occupation of her hometown of Lyman in 2022. Despite her protestations of innocence, she remains in a prison near Dnipro, about 300km from Lyman, alongside 61 other convicted collaborators. Potapenko, who had been a neighborhood volunteer for 15 years, claims that her actions during the Russian occupation were motivated by the need to help her community survive under harsh conditions.
A Longtime Volunteer Turned Convicted Collaborator
Lyman, located near the front lines of the Donbas, was occupied by Russian forces for six months before being liberated by Ukraine. During this time, Potapenko continued her community work, which had previously involved coordinating with local officials to provide necessities such as firewood. However, when the Russians took control, she says her involvement became more complicated. Faced with a humanitarian crisis, Potapenko helped distribute much-needed relief supplies, including food and medicine, to those in need, particularly the elderly.
“I could not leave those old people. I grew up among them,” she explained, defending her decision to continue her volunteer work under the Russian occupation. Ukrainian prosecutors, however, saw things differently. They accused Potapenko of accepting an official role with the occupying forces and charged her with collaborating with the enemy.
Despite her defense, a Ukrainian court found her guilty based on documents she had signed during the occupation. Potapenko vehemently denies that she ever worked for the Russians. “What’s my crime? Fighting for my people? I never worked for the Russians,” she insists. Her case reflects the broader challenge Ukraine faces in addressing the issue of collaboration in occupied territories.
Ukraine’s Tough Laws on Collaboration
In response to Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, Ukraine enacted legislation making collaboration with the enemy a criminal offense. This law was drafted quickly, as Moscow advanced across Ukrainian territory. The legislation encompasses a wide range of activities, from supporting the invasion online or in person to playing a political or military role for the occupying forces. Penalties for collaboration can be severe, with jail terms of up to 15 years.
Since the law was passed, nearly 2,000 individuals have been convicted of collaboration, including Potapenko. While the law was designed to prevent people from helping the Russian invaders, critics argue that its scope is too broad. Legal experts, like Onysiya Syniuk from the Zmina Human Rights Centre in Kyiv, are concerned that the law punishes people who were merely trying to survive under occupation, without necessarily harming Ukraine’s national security.
“Now people who are providing vital services in the occupied territories will also fall liable under this legislation,” Syniuk explains. She emphasizes that lawmakers should consider the difficult realities of life under occupation, where many are forced to make hard choices to provide for themselves and their communities.
Life in Occupied Lyman
Lyman is a town deeply scarred by the war. Airstrikes and heavy fighting have left it in ruins, and Russian forces remain nearby, just 10 kilometers from the town. The impact of the conflict is visible everywhere—collapsed pylons, damaged homes, and an eerie quiet that hangs over the once-vibrant town. Amid this devastation, Potapenko’s husband, Volodymyr Andreyev, is struggling to keep their household together without her. At 73, Andreyev is frail and relies on the help of neighbors to care for their disabled son.
“If I were weak, I would burst into tears,” he says, expressing his frustration and confusion over his wife’s imprisonment. He believes that Potapenko’s only crime was continuing her community work in desperate times. Despite the possibility of a reduced sentence, she refuses to admit guilt. “I will never admit that I am an enemy of the state,” she says, standing firm in her conviction.
The Broader Context of Collaboration
Potapenko’s case is not unique. Across eastern Ukraine, similar stories have emerged of people being convicted for acts of collaboration that, in their view, were acts of survival. One school principal was jailed for accepting Russian materials for his school, though his defense lawyer argued that he never actually used them. In another case, a stadium manager in the Kharkiv region faced 12 years in prison for organizing two friendly matches while under Russian occupation.
These stories raise questions about the fairness of Ukraine’s collaboration law. Under international humanitarian law, occupying forces are required to allow civilians to continue living their lives, even in territories under military control. The United Nations (UN) has expressed concerns that many of Ukraine’s collaboration convictions may be overly harsh or lack a solid legal basis.
Danielle Bell, head of the UN’s Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, points out that a third of the collaboration convictions handed down in Ukraine since the war began in 2022 do not align with international standards. “Crimes have been carried out on occupied territory, and people need to be held to account for the harm they’ve done to Ukraine. But we’ve also seen the law applied unfairly,” Bell says. She argues that the law does not take into account the motives behind people’s actions—whether they were actively collaborating or simply trying to survive.
Fear and Survival in Occupied Ukraine
The fear of living under Russian occupation is real and justified. There is evidence that Russian forces have targeted and tortured Ukrainians who supported their own government during the occupation. In some cases, simply expressing pro-Ukrainian views was enough to provoke retaliation from the occupying forces. “We’ve had cases of individuals being detained, tortured, disappeared, simply for expressing pro-Ukrainian views,” Bell explains.
For individuals like Potapenko and Dmytro Herasymenko, another resident of Lyman, the reality of life under occupation was one of fear and survival. Herasymenko, an electrician, was asked by the Russian occupiers to help restore power to the town after months of outages. He complied, fearing the consequences of refusing. After Lyman was liberated, Herasymenko was arrested and handed a suspended sentence for collaborating with the enemy.
“I can’t be judged in the same way as collaborators who help guide missiles,” Herasymenko argues, echoing Potapenko’s sentiments. He believes that his actions, like hers, were driven by necessity rather than loyalty to the occupying forces.
A Path Forward for Ukraine’s Collaboration Law?
As Ukraine continues its fight for liberation, the issue of collaboration remains a sensitive and complex one. Ukrainian lawmakers are now considering amendments to the collaboration law, which could offer lighter punishments, such as fines, for less serious offenses. And while Kyiv remains firm in its commitment to holding collaborators accountable, there is growing recognition that the law may need to be refined to better reflect the realities of life under occupation.
For now, Potapenko and others like her remain behind bars, caught in the crossfire of a legal system grappling with the aftermath of war. Whether their actions were crimes or simply acts of survival is a question that Ukraine will continue to face as it rebuilds from the devastation of Russian aggression.
