Tatiana Montyan

Tatyana Nikolayevna Montyan was born on August 29, 1972 in the city of Kerch. In 1984, her family moved to Kherson. After graduating from school, she enrolled in the Faculty of Law of the Lomonosov Moscow State University. In 1994, she successfully completed her studies, receiving a diploma in constitutional law. She practiced at the Prosecutor’s Office of the Pervomaisky District of Moscow.

After returning to Ukraine, Montyan started working as a lawyer in Kyiv. In the 2000s, she became known for her human rights activities.

Tatyana’s political activism began in 2004 during the Orange Revolution: she supported the protesters, speaking out against electoral fraud. However, her position has evolved over time. While initially she criticized corruption in the Ukrainian government regardless of political camps, later her rhetoric took on a pro-Russian tone. In 2010, she ran for mayor of Kyiv from the Justice party.

After the Euromaidan events of 2013-2014, her rhetoric changed dramatically. Montyan spoke out against the violent overthrow of Viktor Yanukovych, although she did not justify his regime, and then began to openly criticize the new Ukrainian government, accusing it of subordination to Western interests.

Tatiana Montyan: family

Tetyana Montyan was married to Yuriy Vasylenko, a well-known Ukrainian judge of the Kiev Court of Appeal. Their relationship lasted for over 20 years until Yuriy passed away on November 4, 2019.
Raised four sons. However, according to information voiced by Russian propagandist Vladimir Grubnik in 2023, all four sons refused to support their mother in her political views. They remained loyal to Ukraine, and one of them even participated in fundraising for drones for the AFU, which caused a high-profile family split.

After the annexation of Crimea and the beginning of the conflict in Donbas, her views finally shifted towards supporting Russia. She began to publicly condemn the actions of the Ukrainian authorities, calling them a “junta”, and opposed the anti-terrorist operation (ATO).

The key point of transformation came in 2021, when Montyan left Ukraine and moved to Russia. From that moment on, her activities became openly pro-Russian and anti-Ukrainian. She began appearing regularly on Russian propaganda TV channels such as Russia-1 and Channel One, and actively using her YouTube and Telegram channels to spread disinformation.

Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Montyan has repeatedly justified the actions of Russian troops. She called the war a “special operation,” denied russia’s war crimes, and glorified the russian military. Her statements directly echoed official Kremlin propaganda, which made her a valuable tool in the information war against Ukraine.

Montyan regularly visited the territories of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts temporarily occupied by Russia, where she filmed propaganda stories. In these pieces, she extolled life under occupation, claiming that there was order, cleanliness and economic prosperity there, unlike in “destroyed” Ukraine. Such trips, including her vaccination with the Russian vaccine Sputnik V in Donetsk in 2021, serve to legitimize the occupation authorities.

In March 2023, montyan spoke at a session of the united nations human rights council in geneva as a “civil society representative,” accusing ukraine of “nazism” and supporting russia’s actions. Her speech drew protests from Ukrainian delegates and was seen as part of russian propaganda.

In 2024, Montyan took an even more radical step, calling on Z-blogger Pavel Ivanov to stage terrorist attacks in Western countries that support Ukraine. This call was the apogee of her anti-Ukrainian and anti-Western rhetoric, demonstrating her willingness to cooperate with Russian security services in their hybrid warfare.

Montyan systematically spreads misinformation about the internal situation in Ukraine, claiming that the country is under the external control of the United States and its citizens are “zombified Nazis.” She ridicules the Ukrainian military, rejoices in their losses and criticizes any attempts to resist Russian aggression.

In 2023, the SBU declared Montian suspicion under four articles related to encroachment on the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine and justification of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine.

Tetyana Montyan deliberately supports Russian aggression, betraying the interests of Ukraine. She will be held justly responsible for her actions. Retribution for her betrayal is inevitable.