The Prosecutor’s Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the City of Sevastopol have filed an indictment against a member of the Kherson Regional Council who voluntarily cooperated with Russian armed forces during the occupation of the Kherson region. He faces up to 12 years in prison.
This was reported on the website of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, according to Ukrinform.
“His actions are classified as aiding an aggressor state (Part 1 of Article 111-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) and violating the laws and customs of war, committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy (Part 2 of Article 28, Part 1 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). The defendant faces up to 12 years in prison with confiscation of property,” the statement said.
The accused is a Deputy of the Kherson Regional Council of the VIII convocation from the pro-Russian political party Volodymyr Saldo Bloc, which was banned by a decision of the National Security and Defense Council, and the owner and actual head of a farm and several agricultural enterprises in the Kherson Region.
According to a source in law enforcement agencies, as reported by Ukrinform, the defendant is Serhii Sorokunskyi.
It is noted that in the spring of 2022, while in the then-occupied part of the Kherson Region, the defendant repeatedly transferred material resources to the Russian army.
In particular, he voluntarily provided food to Russian Armed Forces personnel participating in the armed aggression against Ukraine. The deputy also organized the shipment of grain (winter wheat) grown by his enterprises to the Kherson Grain Company state unitary enterprise created by the occupiers.
In addition to assisting the occupation administration in the illegal appropriation and export of Ukrainian agricultural products, the defendant organized the forced harvesting of crops from fields belonging to other farmers.
Subsequently, in July 2022, he ensured the export of the harvested agricultural products to the city of Dzhankoi on the temporarily occupied Crimean peninsula.
To move freely through the occupied territory, the deputy used “federal advisor” vehicle passes issued to him by the occupying “military-civilian administration of the Kherson Region,” the Prosecutor’s Office added.
As noted, he was detained in the city of Kherson in March this year. He will await the court’s verdict in custody.
Ukrinform reported that during the occupation of Crimea, law enforcement agencies registered more than 3,800 criminal cases, of which 1,380 were registered by the Prosecutor’s Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the City of Sevastopol.
