A Nation of Spy-Catchers: Fear of Saboteurs Has Ukrainians on Edge

Two weeks after Valeriy, an actor and amateur photographer, settled in western Ukraine after fleeing his home in Kyiv, he was stopped and questioned by the local police.

Someone had reported him as he strolled around the city photographing its squares, churches and other landmarks — many now buttressed with sandbags.

The police officers took him to their car and scrolled through the recent photos on his mobile phone, leafed through his sketchbook, and checked what channels he subscribed to on the social messaging app Telegram.

“They were even reading my memes to check if I am making fun of us or them,” he said in an interview, meaning Ukrainians or Russians. Luckily for him, the officers found a meme of ragtag Russian soldiers with televisions for heads — an allusion to the intense propaganda Moscow is churning out — and let him go.