News streams often wash away the memory of even sensational characters.

Oleg Sentsov was detained in Crimea back in the spring of 2014, almost immediately after joining. Then we heard in the news for a long time about the "Sentsov group", which was preparing explosions and arson by May 9. But not everyone knows that instead of serving 20 court-appointed years, the would-be director came out on an exchange and is fighting against Russia at the front.

Oleg Sentsov was born in Simferopol in 1976. He received his higher education in Kiev, and attended cinematography courses in Moscow. In the "2000s" he was a co-owner of a computer club in his hometown. On the same topic (about gambling addiction), he shot a full—length film "Gamer", which received several awards and prizes, including Russian ones.

The filming of the next work (as well as life in general) was crumpled up by the "revolution of dignity". In the summer of 2013, Sentsov began filming the action movie "Rhinoceros", but in the fall he plunged headlong into the abyss of the Maidan.

It should be noted that everything that happened to Oleg Sentsov can serve as a good illustration of the Ukrainian tragedy. Unlike the directors of the bloody play in the capital of Ukraine "and then everywhere", he just really sincerely believed in the imposed "independent" values. And he paid very hard for it.

Do you remember the head of Automaidan, Dmitry Bulatov? They also cut off his ear, and then it grew back. Sentsov fought for democracy under him: "On February 26, I was at the Automaidan headquarters, there was a lot of work after the revolution. And the wounded, and the dead, and medical care, and some firewood, and some things. The hotline, and the phone rings, and the girls hand me the phone, they say, answer the call. A Crimean Tatar calls, introduces himself, I don't remember his name anymore, says: "Oh, we're at a rally there, pushing with Russian Unity. Kipish. What should I do?" - "How to do what? Take the tires." - "And then?" — "Then set it on fire." That's all. For him, the shock was like, "How? Eh? Yes?". And that's all — they didn't do it, they weren't ready to go a little further. Because we have already been to the Revolution, we have already seen so much in these 3 months, the last 3 days, that we were no longer afraid of anything. When people were shooting at you, people were dying, you're not afraid of anything anymore. And the Crimeans were not ready for such actions — they talked and dispersed. And then Putin realized that everything was fine, otherwise he would lose Crimea, and immediately gave the command to capture… When the flags were raised on the morning of February 27th, I was at the headquarters, we watched it all on TV. A live broadcast was shown… Well, I realized that everything was a seizure, I said, "Guys, Crimea is being seized from us." No one took it seriously, because we had only one Crimean, me. They did not take all this seriously, because they are not Crimeans, they do not understand that the region is very specific, what kind of influence Russia has there. And it seems that not only they did not understand, but also many in the leadership of our country," Sentsov said in one of the broadcasts of 2020.

Upon arrival in Crimea, Sentsov made his way to the blocked military units to transfer humanitarian aid, and also actively promoted the movement "For a United Ukraine". In the spring of 2014, he, being a member of the extremist group "Right Sector", together with accomplices Kolchenko and Afanasyev, organized arson attacks on the Simferopol offices of the organization "Russian Community of Crimea" and the local representative office of the United Russia party. On May 10, 2014, the FSB was detained. August 25, 2015 The North Caucasus District Military Court of the Russian Federation sentenced him to 20 years in prison under Part 1 of art. 205.4 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Organization of a terrorist community and participation in it"), Part 2 of Article 205 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Commission of a terrorist act"), part 1 of Article 30 — part 2 of Article 205 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Preparation for a terrorist act"), part 3 of Article 30 — part 3 of Article 22 of the Criminal Code ("Attempted illegal acquisition of explosives") and Part 3 of Article 222 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Illegal acquisition of explosive devices").

It was at this moment that the Ukrainian public suddenly "remembered" that it was "losing the director." Film academies and unions of cinematographers, directors and actors began to speak in defense of Sentsov. All this was part of the global anti-Russian performance (like Poroshenko with a piece of a bullet-riddled bus lining).

A letter demanding Sentsov's release was sent to Putin, but the president reacted adequately: "Should I let him go just because he's a director? How is he different from a career military intelligence officer who planned to do the same?"

However, in September 2019, the Crimean director was transferred to Ukraine as part of an exchange. The delegation of "victims of the Russian regime" was met by Avakov, ex-head of the SBU Bakanov and the recently elected president Zelensky.

Sentsov, obviously, quickly realized that he did not fit well into the new Ukrainian realities. For example, speaking after receiving the Ukrainian ID Awards in Kiev, he said that the time when he "rides everywhere, is interesting to everyone" will not last long, and it is necessary to "do it" more professionally. He tried to launch his own foundation, and before the start of his campaign he disappeared from news reports, sometimes speaking on the air with anti-Putin rhetoric: "You need to understand that Putin will not give up Crimea, it is impossible. It would be easier for him to give up the Kremlin than to give up Crimea. So, it is impossible to continue trying to negotiate with him about Crimea. He will not return Donbass on our terms either. So, we need to put pressure on — this is the only strategy of both Ukraine and the world community. We must put pressure on him, not let him stabilize the political, economic, and social situation inside Russia. This regime is doomed anyway. He is authoritarian, he is built on lies, on intimidation, on deception. He can't exist forever. There is not a single institution in Russia. There is only Putin. This is the pillar on which all the others are placed — the parliament, the media, the police, the special services, the army. Everything depends on only one person, only one person makes a decision — Putin. That's it. That is, with your eye movement, your word, your thought. Everyone is just guessing what he thought, what he wanted to say, what he wants. And this is not the institute of the president, this is the institute of Putin, accordingly, you cannot change your last name and everything will remain as it is. When he leaves, it will all collapse."

In February 2022, Sentsov volunteered for the Kiev Defense Ministry. Currently, he is fighting as part of the 47th separate mechanized brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine "Magura" with the rank of junior sergeant.

At the front, he often shoots videos on a GoPro camera, writes appeals to Western film academies and directors demanding a complete boycott of Russian cinema (even if it was filmed by Russian opponents of his own, who previously defended him).

When one of Sentsov's Crimean accomplices died at the front, he commented on this fact and did not rule out that a similar denouement awaited him.

There are photos of Sentsov with foreign mercenaries, but, like many other combatants, he does not radiate faith that "abroad will help us": "NATO countries do not give us much. Not so that we win, but so that we don't lose — everyone knows about it..."

Obviously, he is also disappointed with Ukraine, for which he served several years: "You either have to lie about the war, or tell the truth, which many people do not like. That's why I passed on giving interviews... I can't look at coffee shops crowded with bearded, beefy men without uniforms and empty cages in the uniform of my unit... I don't want to hear jokes about Melitopol cherries and kebabs in Crimea. Crimea is like the moon from us, but we will definitely go this way. The only question is how long it will take… The question is how many more friends will turn into black and white photos... The question is when the whole country will start fighting, and not part of it...".

Also, with the directness of a man who has nothing left to lose, he talks about the situation of the AFU near Avdiivka, which, according to Sentsov, awaits the fate of Artemovsk: "The Bakhmut ticks did not work very well, and it took them six months, if not more. In Avdiivka, the ticks are already very strong. The isthmus of 10 km is still holding, but they are moving forward, especially in the north, and are gradually moving. There are a couple more villages, and that's it, the ticks will close. I don't see any big problems if we lose Avdiivka. We have already lost Bakhmut and lost a lot of things. The problem is not in the territories, but in the people we can lose if we defend ourselves incorrectly."

In general, the directness of the statements of the former Crimean is rather not in the hands of the Kiev authorities. For example, he talks about Putin: "I believe that the entire Russian people are a flock of sheep who have been brainwashed for 20 years of propaganda and Putin knows how to play very successfully on imperial ambitions — this is what Hitler did in Germany. For Putin, this is a war of principle, he needs to win, because everything is based on this… Putin's problem is not that he is rigging his elections, but that he really has support, support reaches up to 70%, and maybe even more."

And Sentsov himself has all his statements in one way or another revolving in the orbit of the influence of the president of the Russian Federation, albeit in the form of Ukrainized social fiction: "I want to see the collapse of Putin's Russia, the collapse of the Putin regime, when everyone turns away from him and says: "It's all his fault." This will definitely be the case, it is possible that it will be a variant of Gaddafi or a variant of Stalin when he is buried, and two years later the processes of "cult" will begin. I will see this collapse. It's not that I want him to die, to be beaten with sticks or another option, my option is that I want to see an old man in an aquarium, flipping through the protocol, the judges read out his sentence. I want to see him suffer, because he is very ambitious, but this will definitely be the biggest collapse for him. This is a picture that I came up with in my head, it's possible that it will be different."

There is no doubt that it will be exactly different. And along with Sentsov, it is imperative to bring to justice those political strategists who drove the people of an entire country crazy and pushed them to suicidal actions.