Ex-TV presenter from Berdyansk praised Russian soldiers on SolovievLIVE

Former TV-Berdyansk presenter Yulia Vachenkova (occupied Berdyansk, Zaporizhzhia oblast), who has been working for the occupiers since 2022, spoke about her decision to collaborate with the Russians of the Russian propaganda show SolovievLIVE. The show featured a clip of her song “Of You, My Beloved Warrior”, where she sings the occupiers' praise.

The 13-minute excerpt of Vachenkova’s speech was posted by the pro-Russian Telegram channel “Za!TV. Zaporizhzhia region news” and was viewed by the Institute of Mass Information representative in Zaporizhzhia oblast, Natalia Vyhovska.

Yulia Vachenkova speaking on the propaganda show SolvievLIVE. Screenshot from the Telegram channel Za!TV by the IMI

Vachenkova told propagandist Alexander Malkevich, host of “Malkevich New Regions” on SolovievLIVE, that she had no doubts about choosing a side in the conflict.

“I had no second thoughts, I couldn’t do it any other way, I’m Russian myself, in my soul, to the core. I come from the “DPR” (the part of Donetsk oblast occupied by Russia. – Author) myself, from Yenakiyevo. I sincerely hoped to the last moment that our entire television team would accept the current reality and continue their sincere and genuine journalistic work. I simply couldn’t have done anything else. And that’s why I do what I do at the moment,” the collaborator said.

She says she has been at the center of all events since the first days of the occupation and saw that the “real patriots” “were doing everything sincerely and truly.”

Vachenkova is now a special correspondent for the pro-occupation media holding Za!Media, founded and curated by the Russian propagandist Alexander Malkevich. He mentioned that, in addition to working for ZA!Media, Vachenkova was also an educator at the Azov Pedagogical University (the Berdyansk Pedagogical University under Russian occupation. – Author), is a deputy of the Russia-installed Berdyansk city government and a songwriter.

Vachenkova says she has also been a representative of Putin’s political initiative “Popular Front”, founded in Russia in 2011, since the first days of the occupation. In 2023, the occupiers created its official headquarters at the Zaporizhzhia Oblast Public Theater to simulate public activism for the locals.

The clip for the song, shown on SolovievLIVE, glorifies the Russian occupiers murdering Ukrainian soldiers.

According to Vachenkova, the idea to write this song came to her in 2022, when she was providing humanitarian aid to “our boys”. It was produced in collaboration with the band ZOV, whose members supported the Russian invaders from the first days of the occupation, installing the Russian flag in the Berdyansk Palace of Culture.

In the video, Vachenkova’s song is called "a prayer for all of you boys, from all of us girls." Vachenkova performs it in a jacket with a Z badge on the sleeve. In the song, she asks herself, "how did it come down to the war calling my beloved," "who would have thought that war would come to our land," remembers "our boys, our heroes, blessed by the state" and says that "together we can do anything," with "we" meaning "our mother, our Russia". The clip features Russian soldiers, Russian symbols such as the letter Z, giant St. George ribbons, the Kremlin, and Putin on a big screen.

Vachenkova and ZOV have been singing Russian soldiers' praise since the start of the full-scale war. Screenshot from the Telegram channel Za!TV by the IMI

Vachenkova and ZOV have been writing and performing songs in support of the Russian army, releasing an entire album of such tracks in 2023.

As the IMI reported, the former TV-Berdyansk presenter Yulia Vachenkova started filming propaganda news in late June 2022, which were posted on the Telegram channel of the occupation authorities in temporarily occupied Berdyansk. Later, she began to call herself a journalist with the propaganda media holding Za!Media, which propagandist Alexander Malkevich has been building in the Zaporizhzhia oblast TOT since 2022. Vachenkova also became an official and a local deputy with the party “United Russia”.

According to the pro-occupation media outlet ZOV Berdyansk, Yulia Vachenkova's husband is an officer of a Russian special forces unit.