A Russian model was jailed on Thursday for allegedly helping the Ukrainian military collect humanitarian aid, according to multiple reports.
Nadezhda Rossinskaya, who goes by Nadine Geisler, was charged after being accused of undermining Russian security when she allegedly posted information on Instagram in August 2023 about collecting humanitarian aid for Ukraine’s Azov Regiment.
Geisler denies any affiliation to the Instagram account and her attorney has argued that the profile, which has since been removed, may have been created by individuals who wanted “to get rid of people who want to help their country,” the Moscow Times reported.
In the wake of Russia launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Geisler and a group of mostly female volunteers have helped more than 45,000 people survive in Russian-occupied territories. The group has also aided more than 2,000 Ukrainians evacuate Russia. She later fled Russia in May 2023.
Geisler recounted her experience of fleeing Russia in a November 2023 interview with a Russian-language news site connected to Radio Free Europe.
“The day before I left, I had a red mane down to my thighs,” she said during the interview. “I cut my hair. Changed ten cars while I was driving in Russia. When I crossed the border with Belarus, it seemed to me that I was not breathing at all.”
She had returned to Russia by train when she got arrested on Thursday. Geisler could get up to seven years in prison if she is found guilty.
Newsweek reached out to the Russian government via an online form and Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense via email for comment.
What is Ukraine’s Azov Regiment?
The Azov Regiment started as a volunteer militia that fought against pro-Russian separatists. In 2014, two separatist governments that Moscow backed, seized control over two breakaway provinces, Donetsk and Luhansk, in the Donbas region in Eastern Ukraine. The militia was brought into Ukraine’s National Guard that year.
Critics have accused the Patriot of Ukraine organization, which the militia emerged from, of white nationalist and anti-immigration ideas.
However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with Greek channel ERT in May 2022, “They are the official army of our state. Anyone who wanted to be involved in politics – they left and are now in politics. Those who decided to serve in the Armed Forces became part of the Armed Forces.”
Meanwhile, Russia has used Azov Regiment’s past ties to far-right extremism as a way to prop up its claims of a need to “denazify” its eastern neighbor.
Elizabeth Servatynska/Аzov Media/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.