Journalists found photos of Kherson “Gauleiter” and his escape from Kyiv - Bihus.Info

Svitlana Kizilova – Wednesday, 25 May 2022, 20:17

Journalists have managed to get hold of photos showing Oleksandr Kobets, the pseudo-mayor of occupied Kherson, who had previously worked for the KGB. The Russian aggressors tried not to advertise his face.

Source: Bihus.Info

Details: Oleksandr Kobets, the aggressor’s appointee "mayor" of Kherson, does not show his face in public. His social media pages are impossible to find, and he barely appears in propaganda videos. Journalists managed to obtain a photo of Kobets from sources. The photos feature a man who left Kyiv in early March.

Interlocutors told Bihus.Info that Kobets left Kyiv in a hurry on March 7, 2022 in a Mercedes-BENZ C, licence plate AA 8332 CO, registered on his wife’s name: Anna Kobets.

Another man can be seen in the passenger seat with Oleksandr Kobets. According to the media, he got into the Mercedes to join Kobets on the way out of Kyiv, and Oleksandr’s wife moved to the back seat.

The Center for Journalistic Investigations earlier reported that Kobets left Kyiv on March 7. The Centre’s correspondent visited the building on Obolonska street, where Kobets lived in Kyiv.

According to sources, that day Kobets headed to the west of Ukraine, and on March 15, 2022 he left the country at the "Uzhgorod" checkpoint. He was able to cross the border as a person over 60 (he was 62).

On April 26 2022, the mayor of Kherson, Ihor Kolykhayev, announced that the so-called "military commander"of the occupied Kherson Oblast, Colonel Viktor Biedrik, had "appointed" Kobets as a leader in Kherson.

Due to the secrecy surrounding Kobets, confusion arose about his biographical data. Some media first confused him with Oleksandr Dmytrovych Kobets, a candidate for the Kherson City Council from the "Voice" party, and then reported that Kobets had worked as a chauffeur for Kherson's legitimate mayor Ihor Kolykhayev.

In fact, "Gauleiter" Kobets has nothing to do with the "Voice" party. Information regarding Kobets' employment for Kherson Mayor Kolikhayev has not been confirmed yet.

Kobets Oleksandr Yuriiovych was born in Kherson, lived there for some time, and then lived in Kyiv for many years (registered as living at Obolonska Street) and, possibly, in Moscow.

According to sources, Kobets has travelled abroad 22 times in the past 5 years. Most of these trips were directly to Russia and Belarus. In particular, Kobets flew to Minsk in 2019. He also travelled by train and car to Russia in 2018.

Bihus.Info sources confirm information from "Most" media and the Centre for Journalistic Investigations that Kobets worked for the KGB during the Soviet era and then for the Ukrainian Security Service in the early 2000s. In particular, he had worked in the central office of the Ukrainian Security Service until he was fired prior to 2010.

In 2006, Kobets was registered as an employee of the Kyiv firm "Ukragrohimpromholding", which traded in ammonia. It was founded by the Russian Alexander Bessonov in Ukraine. He founded the company using money borrowed from the Russian bank VTB. Alexander Bessonov did not repay the loan, and therefore was the subject of a criminal case in Russia. He told the court that in Soviet times he worked "in the military KGB counterintelligence of the USSR Northern Group of Forces." That is, Kobets' former employer publicly acknowledged his work for the KGB.

In 2012, Kobets and his wife Anna founded the "Kobets Company" in Kyiv and tried to do business.