Russia's fake referendums in southern and eastern Ukraine: two collaborators exposed
Kyiv • UNN
The SBU detained two women who helped the occupiers hold pseudo-referendums in Kherson and Kharkiv regions. One collected “votes” under the threat of persecution, the other provided passport data of residents.
The Security Service of Ukraine has exposed two more collaborators who collaborated with Russia in Kharkiv and Kherson regions at the beginning of the full-scale war. This was reported by the press service of the SBU, UNN reports .
Both offenders were involved in the preparation of Russia's pseudo-referendums on the "accession" of Ukraine's eastern and southern regions to Russia,
Details
One of the defendants was a former saleswoman from the right bank of the Kherson region. After the seizure of Beryslav district, the woman got a job at the occupation "election committee" that the Nazis set up on the territory of the community.
There, she worked with "ballots" and, accompanied by the Russian military, went around the yards collecting "votes." If she refused to sign in support of the Kremlin, she was threatened with persecution by the occupiers.
After the liberation of the right bank of the region, the collaborator fled to Khmelnytsky, where she hid from justice under the guise of an IDP.
SBU officers tracked down the offender and served her a notice of suspicion under Part 2 Art. 28, Part 5 Art. 111-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (collaboration committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy). The detainee is in custody. She faces up to 10 years in prison.
Another defendant is the secretary of the starosta of one of the village councils in the Kupiansk district of Kharkiv region. During the temporary occupation of the community, she was employed by the local occupation administration of the Russian Federation. There, she collected passport data of fellow villagers to use it to hold a fake plebiscite in the then occupied part of the region.
After the de-occupation of the village, the defendant tried to "go into hiding," but law enforcement officers established her whereabouts and notified her of suspicion under Part 2 of Article 111-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (collaboration).
