Ukraine Opens Criminal Investigation Into Director of “Russians at War” Film

The Security Service of Ukraine opened a criminal case against the director of the film "Russians at War" Anastasia Trofimova.

“Russians at War” was filmed in temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories, without official authorization. The movie was directed by Russian-Canadian filmmaker Anastasia Trofimova, who formerly worked with Russia’s state-sponsored RT news agency, who stated seeing “absolutely ordinary guys with a sense of humor” and “no signs of war crimes during her time near the front.”

This was announced by the Head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Freedom of Speech, Yaroslav Yurchyshyn. 

He recalled that Trofimova illegally crossed the state border of Ukraine together with the Russian military, conducted filming and released a film that “whitewashes Russian occupiers.”

“Russians at War” premiered at the 81st Venice Film Festival and received a wide public backlash. The film provides only small glimpses of the actual combat and does not reveal the extent of the destruction being inflicted by the Russian forces in Ukraine. The documentary features a Ukrainian who fights on the side of Russia saying Ukraine bombed its own eastern regions. Another character broadcasts the narrative about “Ukrainian Nazis.”