Ukrainian citizens accused of collaborating with occupying Russian forces in Kharkiv province and the neighbouring Donbas region are fleeing from recently liberated areas and queueing to cross into Russia at the border, Ukrainian officials have said.
“The ‘commandant’s offices’, ‘prosecutor’s offices’, occupiers and gauleiters are leaving,” the governor of Luhansk province, Serhiy Haidai, wrote on Telegram. “The Ukrainian flag, which our guerrillas raised last night over the administration building in Kreminna, remains intact as the Russians now seem to have understood everything so they don’t dare to take it down. Russians and their collaborators are fleeing from Luhansk region, heading towards Russia”. Luhansk makes up the Donbas region with Donetsk to the south.
Ukraine’s forces have continued to press their counterattack in Kharkiv, reportedly taking control of almost the entire province. Russia has launched dozens of air and missile strikes on power plants and other locations in apparent retaliation for Kyiv’s success.
Fearing retaliation, Ukrainian citizens who have cooperated with the Russians are “packing their loot, packing their families, and leaving”, said Haidai, who backed up his claim by posting footage of cars queueing up at checkpoints in the towns of Stanytsia Luhanska and Shchastia.
Serhii Smak, a 44-year-old from the recently-liberated town of Balakliia, said: “There were many collaborators here. Some remained. But the majority have left and went to Russia”.
An indirect confirmation on the flight of collaborators came from Russian propagandists, one of whom wrote on Telegram: “People who trusted us are fleeing the reprisals of the Kyiv regime. They trusted us and they have nowhere to go yet. They need tents, heating points, internet access points to contact their relatives, food and water, and just help and support.”
The Guardian could not independently verify the claims.
According to a man who fled east with his wife from Russian-occupied territory, there have been long lines of vehicles forming at border crossings into Russia. The man, who is not a collaborator, said he was fleeing alongside hundreds of others because they feared becoming caught in fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces.
In Kharkiv city, police are attempting to arrest citizens accused of collaborating with the enemy.
Ukrainian prosecutors said at the beginning of May that there were more than 700 treason cases open against Ukrainian citizens, and a further 700 cases of collaboration. In Kharkiv province alone, prosecutors said they had opened 50 cases, including against seven police officers, five mayors, and a judge. They all stand accused of paving the way for Moscow to occupy villages and kill dozens of people during the Russian advance into the province.
Some people who had fled to Kharkiv city from towns elsewhere in the province said that when the Russians arrived they carried lists of local people who were in the Ukrainian military, relatives of soldiers, and veterans of the 2014 war. According to testimonies of people in Kharkiv, the Russians allegedly kidnapped these people and took them to unknown locations, and they have not been heard from since.
