Ovchinnikova said it did not worry her if the gear she raised money for went to units that were killing civilians because she believes they are Nazis, and she couldn’t control what the units were doing in Ukraine.

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Her beliefs are standard Kremlin propaganda espoused by Vladimir Putin himself as a justification for the invasion and have no basis in fact.

Ovchinnikova asks her followers for roubles and for the money to be sent to Russian bank accounts, including some held by Sberbank, a bank which is the subject of sanctions by New Zealand.

The items are then purchased in Russia and sent to the units on the front line.

Ovchinnikova has posted thousands of times – in Russian – since the channel launched in February.

Stuff has found and translated 20 posts on the channel where she claims to have raised money and purchased items worth a total of just over 1,550,000 roubles.

In the posts, the Auckland woman often uses dehumanising language – for example, repeating the Kremlin’s lie that Ukrainians are Nazis.

Ovchinnikova even used one post to deride the Kiwi volunteer Dominic Abelen, who recently died fighting the Russians in Ukraine.

The woman claims that she is also in contact with soldiers on the front line and when she announces an item that she is collecting money for, she claims the soldiers have requested it.

In particular, two units have received Ovchinnikova’s patronage.

The first unit that received silencers, drones and sights was a new volunteer reconnaissance and sabotage battalion called Veter, or “Wind”, which claimed to be fighting on the front line in Donetsk and Luhansk.

One video shows a soldier holding unboxed gun sights and thanking the channel specifically for raising the money for the items.

“Without you, your support, the victory would be too long, but with your support it will be very fast,” the soldier said.

The second group claimed to be a Russian battalion called “Storm”.

Tellingly, as Ukraine reclaimed land in an offensive in the country’s northeast, Ovchinnikova began to fundraise for tinned food, helmets and thermal underwear rather than the gun sights of earlier in the conflict.

Yuriy Gladun, chairman of the northern region of the Ukrainian Association of NZ, said he wanted to see New Zealand designate Russia a terrorist state so anyone financing it could be convicted of a crime.

“Every person has got his or her moral rules. She thinks she is doing right because she is poisoned by Russian propaganda.”

Gladun said the kind of logic Ovchinnikova and Russia used to justify the invasion and killing civilians was “inside out, upside down”.

Police said they couldn’t comment on any specific complaint they had received, but Stuff understands that they have investigated the case and found the woman wasn’t breaking any New Zealand law.