On Thursday, a Russian model named Nadezhda Rossinskaya, known as Nadine Geisler, was imprisoned for purportedly assisting the Ukrainian military in gathering humanitarian aid, as reported by various sources.
The charges against Geisler stem from an accusation of undermining Russian security by allegedly posting information on Instagram in August 2023 about collecting humanitarian aid for Ukraine’s Azov Regiment.
Geisler disavows any connection to the Instagram account in question, and her legal representative contends that the profile, now removed, might have been fabricated by individuals with the intent “to get rid of people who want to help their country,” according to the Moscow Times.
Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Geisler, along with a predominantly female volunteer group, aided over 45,000 people in surviving in Russian-occupied territories and facilitated the evacuation of more than 2,000 Ukrainians from Russia. She subsequently left Russia in May 2023.
In an interview with a Russian-language news site associated with Radio Free Europe in November 2023, Geisler shared her experience of fleeing Russia, stating, “The day before I left, I had a red mane down to my thighs. 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.”
Geisler, who returned to Russia by train, was arrested on Thursday and could face up to seven years in prison if found guilty.
The Azov Regiment, for which Geisler allegedly collected humanitarian aid, originated as a volunteer militia opposing pro-Russian separatists. In 2014, after Moscow-backed separatist governments seized control of Donetsk and Luhansk in Eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region, the militia became part of Ukraine’s National Guard.
Critics have accused the Patriot of Ukraine organization, from which the militia emerged, of promoting white nationalist and anti-immigration ideologies.
Despite these criticisms, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky defended the Azov Regiment, stating in a May 2022 interview with Greek channel ERT, “They are the official army of our state.” Zelensky clarified that those who wanted to engage in politics had left, and those serving in the Armed Forces had become part of the military.
Russia has used the Azov Regiment’s alleged ties to far-right extremism as a basis for asserting the need to “denazify” its eastern neighbor. Soldiers of the 12th Special Forces Brigade “Azov” were pictured walking in a trench in Serebryansky Forest in Luhansk Oblast, Ukraine, on October 12, 2023.
