The People's Artist of Ukraine from Kherson, who did not hide her cooperation with the Russians from the first weeks of the occupation of Kherson in 2022 and actively performs in the occupied territory, 56-year-old Ruzhena Rublyova, was found guilty of committing a criminal offense provided for in Part 6 of Art. 111-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine: "Collaborative activity".
The Rivne City Court issued the corresponding sentence on March 26, 2024.
Before the large-scale invasion, Rublyova was one of the leading artists of the Mykola Kulish Kherson Academic Music and Drama Theater.
The court established that 56-year-old Rublyova Ruzhena Anatolyivna, a native of the village of Askania-Nova, Kakhovsky District, Kherson Oblast, a resident of Kherson, voluntarily went to serve the enemy. On September 30, 2022, she took part in a concert dedicated to the Russian occupation of part of Ukraine and held in the center of Moscow.
"Ruzhena Rublyova, accompanied by the choir of the National Guard of the Russian Federation, performed a musical composition that begins with the words: "Here the birds don't sing..." - the court's verdict reads.
Rublyova also campaigned for people to take part in an illegal referendum on the "joining" of the Kherson region to Russia, and on February 14, 2023, she performed the solo performance "Symphony of one soul" in the temporarily occupied Genichesk.
Ruzhena Rublyova did not appear at the court session, she hid from the investigation, so the sentence was handed down in her absence. Currently, she is actively touring the occupied territories of Ukraine and in remote corners of Russia, occasionally performing in group concerts of Russian artists in Moscow. She also heads the occupiers' theater, which is located in Henichesk.
The court's sentence is 10 years of imprisonment with confiscation of all property belonging to her. The verdict states that several of her apartments will be transferred to the state's income. Ruzhena Rublova was also banned from holding positions in the field of culture for 12 years.
A few months before the occupation by the Russians, Rublev and Yevhen Gamayunov rejoiced at the new Ukrainian titles: she was a people's artist, he was an honored artist. Now both work for the Russians.
