How Ukraine is punished for denying Russian aggression

After the Russian invasion in the spring of 2022, the Criminal Code of Ukraine was replenished with a new article – on the denial or justification of Russian aggression and the praise of its participants. Who falls under it and how is it judged?

Most cases of denial of Russian aggression, tells Deutsche Welle relate to reposts and likes on social networks, for example, in Russian Odnoklassniki. The material “Who is on trial in Ukraine for denying Russia’s aggression” highlights how this happens.

The story of the president of the international innovation fund

Valery grew up in an orphanage in Kharkov, served his military service in Moldova and fought in Chechnya. Then he studied at Kharkov Architectural and Moscow State Universities, worked in a laboratory in the Urals. In the 2000s he returned to Ukraine, lived in Kharkov and Chuguev, where he bought a house.

Later, Valery moved to Kyiv and founded the charitable organization International Innovation Fund “Light of Hope-Energy”. Before the war, the man went to scientific conferences in Russia. Since February 24, 2022, he cut off ties with the Russians until “until the politicians figure it out.” He lived in a rented office, doing “energy research” and helping war victims. The Security Service of Ukraine detained Valery in March in the capital:

“We suspect you that your foundation and you personally are engaged in the distribution of literature that is contrary to the legislation of Ukraine…”.

This is how he learned about the new article of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – about the denial or justification of Russian aggression. The SBU opened proceedings against Valery in August last year. The reason is the posts on the Facebook page of his foundation, the man repeatedly distributed messages, the content of which the investigation does not disclose. The conclusion of the expert of the Kyiv Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Examinations reads:

“These posts contain justification and recognition of the legitimate armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, launched in 2014, including by justifying the temporary occupation of part of its territory and praising the persons who commit this armed aggression.”

According to Valery, one of the posts reproduced the statement of Vladimir Putin, while others reproduced the posts of pro-Russian Yuri Podolyak and Tatyana Montyan, whom he calls friends of his foundation: “We didn’t know that this falls under the article. If they are already punished for this…” .

Valery was detained in March, the court chose a measure of restraint for him – a personal obligation. A month later, the investigation was completed, and the case was taken to court. The man does not consider himself guilty: the page on the social network belongs to the foundation, and another representative of the organization was involved in the distribution of messages. He assures: “I don’t understand politics. We have never been against Ukraine.”

Crime and Punishment

The maximum punishment under the article on the denial of Russian aggression is eight years in prison. In April last year, the Boryspil Court of the Kyiv Region delivered its first sentence and assigned the accused a three-year suspended sentence. The investigation concluded that a man named Vladislav, “probably under the influence of Russian and pro-Russian media,” formed his views and spread anti-Ukrainian messages in the Telegram messenger. He created his own group there called “Fakes, Crimes of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the National Battalions” and participated in discussions in a group of his friend called “Military News of Ukraine”. A month later, the Boryspil city district court of the Kyiv region issued the first sentence under this article and appointed the accused three years on probation.

Cases under this article are considered almost daily throughout Ukraine, the newspaper notes. There are more than 500 sentences in the judicial state register. Usually, the accused plead guilty, make deals with the investigation and receive suspended sentences.

“Class” button in “OK.ru”

Most of the cases concern “dissemination by preference” – that is, “class” marks under pro-Russian messages on Odnoklassniki, a Russian social network that has been blocked in Ukraine since 2017. A little about the “class” button.

OK.ru social network (formerly Odnoklassniki), owned by Mail.ru Group, introduced the function secret marks “class”. It is assumed that only the authors of the posts will be able to see such ratings. Experts are confident that the innovation will clear the news feed of users from spam. The press service of the OK.ru social network explained:

“We want to make it as interesting and comfortable as possible for users to share emotions and content on the social network, so we are constantly experimenting, including with reactions to posts. Which of them will remain in OK.ru, we always decide based on the results of the experiment.

Innovations followed after the attempt of the social network to introduce an algorithm for analyzing the quality of the content of groups. Users will see more interesting, unique and popular publications more often than those that do not pass the content quality assessment according to these criteria. The “class” button is used to indicate a positive evaluation of the content. When you click on it, you can select an emotion that will notify the author of the publication and get into the user’s feed with the words “surprised”, “thinks it’s funny”, “thinks it’s cute”.

In fact, it is an analogue of the “share” button in other social networks. According to the founder of the public MDK Roberto Panchvidze, innovations will benefit Odnoklassniki:

“Now many social networks are taking the path of privacy, closing profiles, limiting comments. In principle, in Odnoklassniki this will help unload the news feed from “spam”, on the other hand, for people who have many friends, the feed will become much emptyer.

Consequences of “preferences” and “distributions”

In some sentences under the new article of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, the texts of the messages are given. Their authors call the Russian aggression a “special military operation” and “liberation from Ukrainian Nazis”, thank Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian military, and claim that the Ukrainian army is committing war crimes on its own territory. The materials of the cases contain the conclusions of expert philologists and linguists who analyze these messages.

The investigation calls the mark “class” distribution, because in Odnoklassniki the messages you like are displayed in the news feed. The SBU believes that the defendants knew about this – most of them have been using the social network for more than a year. To prove that someone saw their messages, the investigation indicates the number of friends and subscribers of these pages. For example, almost 800 people could see the message of Olga, a resident of the Odessa region, about the occupation of Lisichansk, with the words “We returned to our home.”

They are also being tried for “inclining towards a pro-Russian position” – when social network users forward pro-Russian messages to their friends. For example, in the verdict of the Shostka city district court of the Sumy region, which also imposed a suspended sentence on a local resident Tatyana, it says:

“The citizen, knowing for certain that her interlocutors did not share her anti-Ukrainian opinions and statements, assured that the armed aggression of the Russian Federation was quite legitimate and expressed a negative attitude towards the country where she lives, glorifying the Russian Federation, justifying the crimes committed by the Russian military on the territory of Ukraine” .

Conditional and real punishments

Sergey Krutko, a lawyer from the Free Legal Aid Center, said in an interview with DW:

“Against the background of all the articles related to the war, this crime does not have devastating consequences. It is less serious. Accordingly, the punishment is less severe. I cannot say that these are marginal people. They just watched and read Russian propaganda. They did not perceive the information critically “.

He recalls how one of his clients was taken to court in Kharkiv. From the window, the defendant watched Severnaya Saltovka, the area most affected by Russian shelling. In court, the man said that thanks to this he realized the consequences of Russian aggression. The lawyer says: “Perhaps this is a creative, emotional person. Or a person who cannot critically analyze the situation.”

However, not all sentences are conditional; they also meet with real punishment under the article on the denial of Russian aggression. For example, the Dzerzhinsky District Court of Kharkov sentenced Andrei to three years in prison for spreading pro-Russian messages on Telegram and on his Facebook page. According to psychological and linguistic expertise, they contained “messages that Ukrainians should be destroyed, since such a nation does not exist, it was invented, like the state of Ukraine.”

In court, Andrei fully admitted his guilt and said that he did not support Russian aggression. He disagreed with the verdict and filed an appeal.

How criminals are found

To detect such crimes, SBU investigators monitor both social networks and the media. The investigation also opens cases on complaints from citizens. It is extremely rare for those accused under this article to deny their guilt. In most of these cases, the defendants make a deal with the investigation and receive a suspended sentence. The case brought against a resident of Lvov named Evgeny can be called an exception.

According to investigators, in telephone conversations with a neighbor, he called Russian aggression “demilitarization” and “denazification”, admired the Soviet KGB and called on the Russians to bomb Polish Rzeszow. The neighbor Eugene spoke to is an old friend of his, with whom they have had political disputes since 2014 and who, after a full-scale invasion, joined the therodefense. He recorded conversations with Yevgeny and testified them in court.

Eugene pleaded not guilty. As noted in the verdict, he stated that “Ukraine does not exist and never existed,” he “accidentally” became its citizen, since his “country fell apart.” The man added that, in his opinion, “Russia was provoked into a full-scale war against Ukraine, and the West is fighting Ukrainians for their own interests, which are directed against Russia.”

Given that Yevgeny said all this in a personal conversation, the court appointed him, albeit a real, but minimal punishment – six months of arrest. The court concluded that “imposition of a heavier type of punishment would be perceived as cruel treatment and punishment grossly disproportionate to the act,” according to the DW material.

The article “Collaborationist activity” (Article 111-1) appeared in the Criminal Code of Ukraine on March 3, 2022, on the eighth day of the Russian invasion. Although Ukraine faced the problem of collaborationism back in 2014, after Russia occupied Crimea and began supplying weapons to militants in the Donbass, there was no special article in the Criminal Code. Those who cooperated with the occupying authorities were tried, for example, on charges of treason or terrorist financing.

Now one article – “Collaborationist activity” – covers a wide range of actions and provides for punishment from a fine to life imprisonment, depending on what the particular person has done.

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