Ukrainian Resistance Under Russian Occupation: Surveillance, Brutality, and Survival

The Nature of Ukrainian Resistance

• 💡 The word "resistance" carries significant historical weight, especially in France, but in Ukraine, it's a daily, arduous, and often lonely experience.
• ⚠️ Resistance fighters in occupied Ukraine face constant surveillance and incredibly high risks, with new technological innovations exacerbating these dangers.
• 😔 The resistance is not always heroic in the traditional sense but is closer to the lived experience of World War II resistance fighters, marked by hardship and isolation.

Russian Occupation Tactics and Surveillance

• 🇷🇺 Occupied Ukrainians are forced to accept Russian passports or be classified as foreigners, a measure implemented in regions like Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Luhansk.
• 📱 The Kremlin utilizes an app called "Max" that integrates banking, messaging, and public services, requiring users to submit biometric data for enhanced surveillance.
• 🧠 The Russian objective extends beyond surveillance to transforming the population and erasing Ukrainian identity.

Forms of Resistance and Russian Response

• 💥 Documented incidents of resistance include car bombings, sabotage on infrastructure, and assassination attempts on Russian officials.
• 🤫 Only about 20% of resistance acts become publicly known due to the clandestine nature of operations and widespread surveillance.
• 🚫 Expressions of Ukrainian or pro-Ukrainian identity are treated as extremism or terrorism by Russia, leading to severe consequences.

Brutality and Disappearances

• 💔 The brutality of the occupation fuels resistance, with routine enforced disappearances to black sites, often disused garages or basements.
• 🧒 Cases of children and teenagers being falsely identified as leaders of resistance movements and dying under torture or in detention have been documented.
• 🤰 Pregnant women have been forced to give birth in brutal conditions within these black sites.
• 📰 The death of Ukrainian journalist Victoria Romashka, who was abducted while documenting conditions and whose mutilated corpse was returned months later, highlights the extreme dangers.

Evolving Resistance Networks

• 🧩 Due to Russian filtration measures and surveillance, traditional cell-based resistance structures have been compromised.
• 🧩 The current model often functions as a "puzzle model" where agents do not know each other, minimizing the impact of a single compromised member.
• 📉 This shift is a necessary adaptation to prevent cascading compromises through torture and brutal interrogation methods.

The Blurring Lines of Resistance

• ⚖️ The distinction between violent and non-violent resistance has largely collapsed, meaning any expression of Ukrainian identity can result in a violent response.
• 🚨 Sending a message like "Crimea is Ukraine" can be classified as separatism, terrorism, or treason, carrying the risk of long prison sentences or worse.