Transcarpathian renegade: how a native of Tyachiv became a Kremlin agitator

ExclusiveThere are places on the map of Ukraine where the land remembers both the joy of freedom and the shadow of the imperial boot. Transcarpathia is one of them. Here, every stone knows the price of dignity, having had to defend itself more than once - between foreign borders, languages ​​and ambitions. But from time to time, not a defender, but a traitor grows out of this very land - someone who voluntarily becomes the voice of another's will, a lackey of the empire, which again seeks to break Ukraine.

Transcarpathia has its heroes, but it has and their renegadesAnd each of them is a reminder that the war continues not only on the front, but also in the souls of people.

Mykhailo Kutsyn, born in 1975 in the village of Vilkhivtsi, Tyachiv district, Transcarpathian region, showed interest in politics from a young age, but his path did not lead to the defense of his native land, but to cooperation with the enemy. The leader of the organization "Rusynskyy Mir", he long ago transformed the "Rusyn idea" into a tool of Kremlin manipulation.

The so-called comrade Kutsyn has neglected his own history, chosen the role of a propagandist, and is trying to poison the minds of his fellow countrymen with the myth of “Ruthenian liberation.” His story is not just a private degradation. It is a symptom of a disease where conscience is sold for loud Moscow promises and false “greatness.”

We learned that back in a relatively peaceful 2020, Kutsin openly campaigned for Putin's "amendments" to the "constitution" of the Russian Federation, which effectively entrenched a dictatorship and established a "Shvabrostan" in Shvabrostan.Stalinist-style authoritarianismHis participation in propaganda was not limited to the domestic politics of the Russian Federation — he constantly tries to influence Transcarpathia, creating the illusion of a “Ruthenian movement,” which serves as a cover for Russian special operations.

In other words, Mykhailo Kutsyn has a typical biography of a person who could be an asset to his land. He was born in the peaceful Transcarpathian land, among hardworking and kind people who preserved their tradition, language, and faith. But somewhere along the way, something happened — not to his body, but to his spirit. What was once love for his own people turned into hatred for Ukraine.

Today, he no longer hides his mission. His social media pages have become a mouthpiece for calls for treason: “Rusyns, join the Russian army, liberate the Carpathian land from the Ukronazi regime.” In his mouth, this is not just a phrase, it is a call for war against one’s own homeland, for fratricide.

Here he is - in camouflage, with weapons, with a pseudo-republic patch, against the background of a church. And this contrast is especially frightening: the church behind, and in front of him - a man who has turned faith into a propaganda tool, the sacred - into a justification for a crime. His "Orthodoxy" — This is a political decoration with which he covers up his own baseness.

In the history of Transcarpathia, his name will remain as a symbol of the fact that even among the mountains and traditional patriotism, a person can appear who chooses the role of a puppet of a foreign empire, rather than a defender of his native land.

But we need to pay attention to the fact that betrayal is never born suddenly. It ripens slowly - in halftones, in phrases about "alternative history", in cunning calls to "preserve our identity", which in reality mean - to turn away from Ukraine. This is exactly how the Russian hybrid machine works, and its small wheels are people like Mikhail Kutsyn.

His activities are part of a larger scheme that has been in the works for a long time. against Ukrainian Transcarpathia. It should be noted that the Russian Federation is systematically, purposefully, and methodically distorting the very idea of ​​Ruthenianism — once a cultural, historically local movement that could have been a source of pride. Moscow has turned it into a tool of disinformation, a cover for special operations aimed at destabilizing the region, sowing distrust of Kyiv, and creating the illusion of “Ruthenian statehood.”

Kutsyn is not alone in this mechanism. He is surrounded by other mouthpieces of imperial will: Petro Getsko, who has been declaring an “independent Subcarpathian Rus” since 2014; Vladislav Sverlovych, who spreads fakes about “oppression of the Ruthenians”; and Tetiana Pop, who covers up her open collaboration with the rhetoric of “protecting traditions.”

To this hop company it is worth including the so-called Uzhhorod Antichrist, a pro-Kremlin incense burner, i.e. a priestDmytrashka Sidor, which despite huge public outcry is our valiant justice no як can not send to places not so remote.

They all act synchronously, receiving information signals from Moscow centers, and all cover themselves with the same slogan “for faith, for the Ruthenians, for peace.”

In reality, this is an information war under an ethnographic mask. Kutsyn and his associates are trying to turn Ruthenian culture into a political weapon, to replace love for their native land with hatred for the state that protects it. Their “Ruthenian movement” is not a movement, but a rhetorical trap created by Kremlin technologists to test Ukrainian unity for strength.

And when Kutsyn goes out in public in a black uniform, with a gun in his hand and calls to "liberate the Carpathians," it is not just an act of personal madness. It is a link in a chain - part of a larger operation where propaganda turns into sabotage and faith becomes an instrument of betrayal.

In every war, there are not only external enemies, but also those who fight against their country from within. Their names will never be in textbooks next to the heroes - but they are a reminder of the thin line that separates a citizen from a traitor.

Mikhail Kutsyn is not an accident or an isolated incident. He is a symptom of a deeper illness that once quietly affected a part of our society - indifference, fatigue, spiritual blurring. The Russian Federation skillfully exploited these cracks, offering simple answers, nostalgia instead of thinking, faith without conscience. This is how the ground is being formed for new collaborators - people without identity, who think that a foreign empire can give them what they did not gain through their own labor.

And yet, history is not on the side of the renegades. It sweeps their names into the dust, but instead leaves behind the memory of those who did not betray. Kutsyn and his ilk may today shout about the "liberation of the Carpathians," but this is only a cry of spiritual emptiness, an attempt to justify one's own weakness with a big lie.

Transcarpathia is not an object of experiments of the "Russian world". It is a part of Ukraine, a land where Ukrainians live nearby, Hungarians, Slovaks, Jews, Romanians — and all of them together have already proven thatcommon destiny is stronger for any imperial poison. It is here, among the mountains and rivers, that true unity is born - not invented by Moscow technologists, but suffered, human, honest.

And that's why people like Mykhailo Kutsyn can only temporarily make noise on the margins of history. Because the future is not with them. The future is with those who stand, even when it's hard, and don't sell their honor for false slogans.

Mykhailo Kutsyn is not just a collaborator. He is a symbol of how betrayal begins with contempt for one's own people. His path is a path of spiritual degeneration, when instead of protecting one's land, a person becomes a mouthpiece for the occupier. And the scariest thing is that he continues to appeal to his fellow countrymen, calling on them to "liberate the Carpathians from the Ukronazi regime," that is, to actually destroy Ukraine.

He followed mirages—not truth, not the land, not those who raised him, but demonic ghosts of the rasca: greatness that turns out to be empty, and promises of power that feed only on temporary power and eternal submission. These mirages shine like counterfeit coins: from the shine comes the crowd, from the crowd comes silence, and in silence comes submission. He believed what was given to him on order: “you will be great if you side with the empire.” Instead, he received the role of a puppet—needed as long as it is convenient.

There is an old script: on the outside he is a voice calling, on the inside he is one who obediently executes. Kremlin technologists do not like ideologues; they need executors. It is they who are used, exhausted, and when it eventually becomes dangerous or the puppet undermines the script, they are thrown out. He will be no exception: he will be used for PR and operations, and when his shelf life expires, he will be squeezed, humiliated, and banished to the same province from which he once came, but already with the brand of a traitor on his forehead.

Instead of fighting for freedom, he became an accomplice of the racist oppressors of the Ukrainian people. Where there should have been resistance and defense of the land, he chose the role of an accomplice — a person who unleashed foreign aggression in his native land. His words and actions — not an act of resistance, but an act of servility: He is selling national dignity for the illusion of security. And this bargaining chip will quickly lose its luster when the truth comes out.

What awaits him next is obvious. In a reality where power reigns supreme, puppets become a burden; and in those systems where fear and order rule—not will, but submission—disappointment comes quickly. He will realize that his “conquerors” are not friends or saviors, but a machine that devours all life for the sake of control. There, in that system where everything is subordinated to the orders and security of the regime, there is no room for dignity—there are only functions. He will discover this too late.

We, on the other hand, do not forget and will not forgive. And although history is sometimes more lenient in its sentences - in human time it is quite long - there is another matter that cannot be postponed: justice must finally have its say. We are waiting at least for the legal and public condemnation of this accomplice of the occupiers - so that society will see that collaboration has consequences, and does not disappear into the shadows. So that the name of the traitor - instead of serving as a proclamation of fear - becomes a marker of his own downfall.

The end of this story will be simple and inevitable: collaboration with foreign aggression never produces greatness, but only a deeper defeat - individual and moral. And while we stand in defense of truth, freedom and memory, those who chose the path of a traitor will remain where they belong - on the margins of history, in the dustbin of oblivion. We will remain vigilant, demand punishment for betrayal and remember that honor is restored by truth, not by ghostly slogans.

Lajos Nagy and Sandor Rud, magyaroniFor Newsky