'I love Russia' — Inside the prison where Ukrainian collaborators wait for Moscow
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Nelia Checheta served the state for decades — first with the Soviet military in Turkmenistan and later in Ukraine's Emergency Service — earning official honors along the way. At 62, her story continues not with commendations, but with a long prison sentence for collaboration. Checheta was convicted of
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'I love Russia' — Inside the prison where Ukrainian collaborators wait for Moscow by Kateryna Hodunova March 1, 2026 5:19 PM 8 min read Olena Chuieva in a women's penal colony in Southeastern Ukraine on Feb. 5, 2026. (Olena Zashko / The Kyiv Independent) War by Kateryna Hodunova Nelia Checheta served the state for decades — first with the Soviet military in Turkmenistan and later in Ukraine's Emergency Service — earning official honors along the way. At 62, her story continues not with commendations, but with a long prison sentence for collaboration. Checheta was convicted of passing information on Ukrainian troops and aircraft movements to an agent of Russia's Federal Security Service . She insisted the case was fabricated, but the evidence presented in court suggested otherwise. With 1,115 convictions in 2025 alone, Ukrainian courts have sentenced thousands for collaboration since the full-scale invasion began. For those found guilty of aiding Russia, the stakes are stark: up to 15 years in prison, or life imprisonment. Checheta was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2023 and is now confined in southeastern Ukraine at the country's only women's penal colony for collaborators, where she is incarcerated alongside roughly 100 other inmates. Become a member – go ad‑free Checheta will remain imprisoned until she turns 75, but there is a slim possibility of an earlier release through a prisoner exchange. In a bitter twist, that hope rests with Russia: the very country she aided, yet one that likely has no use for her. "I love Russia. I want to go home to Russia. I am Russian," Checheta, born and raised in Ukraine's Donetsk Oblast, told the Kyiv Independent. Groundhog Day Once inside, life in prison drags like Groundhog Day — each morning mirrors the one before, and the monotony stretches on for years. In winter, the gloom deepens, as days blur into gray. At the same time, the facility's grounds are kept spotless — prisoners sweep the courtyard and clean the buildings da...
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