Following a public prosecution by the Lviv Regional Prosecutor’s Office, two Ukrainian citizens were convicted of collaboration (Art. 111-1(4) and (6) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
They were sentenced to 11 and 5 years in prison. The court also imposed additional sanctions – deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities related to administrative and economic functions for a period of 15 years and deprivation of the right to engage in economic activities in the field of telecommunications services for a period of 15 years, respectively. In addition, the court ordered the confiscation of each of their property.
Prosecutors proved in court that in Berdiansk, the defendant voluntarily took the position of director in an illegal Russian government body. It is about the “Municipal enterprise ‘Berdianskvodokanal’ of the military-civilian administration of the city of Berdiansk”.
While in his pseudo-position, the man established active interaction with individual media representatives. During 2022-2023, the defendant gave interviews covering the activities of the occupation administration, which were subsequently disseminated on thousands of pro-Russian Telegram channels.
In particular, in his broadcasts, he expressed gratitude to the occupation administration and noted that the Russian Federation provides significant assistance for the operation of the enterprise, which was not the case under the “former government”.
In addition, in December 2022, in the temporarily occupied Melitopol, another defendant registered a company with illegal authorities in order to conduct business activities in the field of telecommunications services and to interact with the aggressor state, taking the position of CEO.
Later, the man entered into a number of contracts with the occupation administration to provide telecommunications services, for which he received a salary in rubles.
Thus, by promoting Russian narratives, both of these defendants conducted information activities aimed at discrediting the Ukrainian state.
The special pre-trial investigation was conducted by investigators of the SBU Office in Lviv region.
Information policy department
Lviv Regional Prosecutor’s Office