Security Service of Ukraine exposes more collaborators, one of whom betrayed 23 Ukrainians to Russians in Kherson Oblast
ALONA MAZURENKO – WEDNESDAY, 5 OCTOBER 2022, 17:19
Members of the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) have exposed more collaborators who had been helping the Russians in the occupied territories of the Kherson region.
Source: Security Service of Ukraine
Quote: "Seven of them [the collaborators – ed.] have received notices of suspicion of having formed an organised criminal gang, since they had been facilitating the transfer of Ukrposhta [Ukrainian Postal Service – ed.] resources to the Russian Federation – deliberately and with coordination between them.
A former law enforcement employee received a separate notice of suspicion. Under instructions given by the Russian special services, she passed information on at least 23 patriotically-minded residents of Kherson to the occupiers."
Details: After receiving the information, the occupiers conducted searches of these people’s homes, putting psychological and physical pressure on them.
In exchange for her loyalty, the perpetrator was given a job in the so-called "Military and Civil Administration of Kherson Oblast" and then began trying to "justify the occupiers’ trust in her".
According to the SSU’s information, the collaborator’s name was Viktoriia Zemlianova. As an "official" of the illegally established administration, she facilitated the organisation and conducting of the sham referendum in the temporarily occupied territory of Kherson Oblast.
Investigators from the Security Service of Ukraine issued her with a notice of suspicion under two articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine: Article 111 part 2 (treason during martial law) and Article 111-1 parts 1 and 2 (collaborationist activity).
Zemlianova faces a severe sentence, possibly life imprisonment.
In the case concerning the transfer of Ukrposhta resources to the Russians, the SSU has issued further notices of suspicion to Volodymyr Saldo, a collaborator and former mayor of Kherson who voluntarily "took charge" of the occupying regime in the Kherson region; Kateryna Hubarieva, his deputy; and Viktor Firman, a former director of a branch of the Kherson directorate of Ukrposhta. After the Russians occupied Kherson Oblast, Firman agreed to be in charge of the illegal formation of the "State Unitary Enterprise of Kherson Postal Service".
In his new office, Firman pressured locals into collaborating with the occupiers and encouraged them to fill "vacancies" under his leadership.
SSU employees have collected proof that four more "directors of Ukrposhta branches" collaborated with the occupiers. These people are:
- the "head" of the so-called "Crimean Postal Service";
- the "director" of the so-called Personnel Department of the "Crimean Postal Service";
- the "head" of the so-called "Tavria Postal Service";
- an employee of the so-called "Kherson Postal Service".
All the "officials" have now been notified that they are suspected of complicity with the aggressor state, committed as part of an organised group (Article 28 part 3 and Article 111-2 part 1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
Saldo, Hubarieva and Firman have additionally received notices of suspicion of violating Article 28 part 3 and Article 111-1 part 6 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (collaborationist activity; organisation and conducting of political events; and engaging in information activity in collaboration with an aggressor state and/or its occupying administration for the purpose of supporting the aggressor state, conducted as part of an organised group).
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