Featured Image Credit: @_ivan_losev_ / Instagram / Gavin Rodgers / Alamy Stock Photo
Topics: Ukraine, Russia, World News, Volodymyr Zelensky, Vladimir Putin
Joe Harker
Topics: Ukraine, Russia, World News, Volodymyr Zelensky, Vladimir Putin
A Russian man has been fined 30,000 rubles (about £380) for posting on Instagram about a dream he had featuring Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
It might sound absolutely insane to punish someone for writing about a dream they had about Zelenskyy, but Russia isn't exactly behaving like the most sensible country right now.
Their invasion of Ukraine has gone disastrously, lasting far longer than Vladimir Putin would have wanted and failing to take key parts of Ukrainian territory.
Instead, Russian forces have been dealt several defeats, forcing Putin to call up army reserves and give high school students military training.
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Of the extra troops called up to fight in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, some of them are homeless people the army have rounded up and reservist troops have complained about being expected to make do with 'rusty weapons'.
Putin's regime has also cracked down on internal dissent, suppressing protests and people who have spoken out against his government and their actions.
That apparently includes people who say they've been having dreams about Ukraine's president Zelenskyy.
According to news outlet Sibreal, on 8 December a court found Ivan Losev guilty of 'discrediting' the Russian army. He did not attend his own trial as he was not told about the date in time.
He got into trouble for describing a dream he had featuring the Ukrainian president in a now-deleted Instagram post.
The text of the post read: "Today I dreamed that I was mobilized, brought to some kind of preparatory camp, and at that moment the Armed Forces of Ukraine, led by Zelenskyy, burst in there.
"They tied everyone up, they were going to shoot and at that moment Zelenskyy walked past me and said: 'Oh, I saw your stories on Instagram, Glory to Ukraine!'"
"I answer him: 'Glory to the Heroes!' Zelenskyy joyfully taps me on the shoulder and says: 'So, let him go, shoot everyone else.'
"And here we are standing with him, looking at all this, and I say to him: 'Can I take a selfie with you for Instagram?' Zelenskyy says: 'You can.'"
Losev later said his fine was 'idiocy' and was amazed that a trial was set up to punish him for making a post on social media describing a dream he'd had about the Ukrainian president.
The Instagram post went up at about the time Vladimir Putin declared a partial mobilisation, calling up vast numbers of reserve troops and prompting massive queues of people trying to flee the country.
Since then Russia has failed to make major gains in the conflict, while Zelenskyy and the people of Ukraine were named TIME's person of the year for their ongoing efforts to repel Putin's invasion.