Ten years with confiscation: Kherson resident who organized pseudo-referendum sentenced

The Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Chernivtsi delivered a verdict in absentia to 35-year-old Kherson resident Oleksandr Volkov. The man was found guilty of collaboration for holding an illegal "referendum" in September 2022.

This was reported by the Center for Investigative Journalism with reference to the court verdict.

The court found that Oleksandr Volkov , a resident of Kherson , worked in the illegal precinct election commission of the occupiers, which operated in September 2022 in the Central District of Kherson in the premises of the seized Kherson Regional Academic Music and Drama Theater named after Mykola Kulish. It received voters during the occupation "referendum" and issued ballots.

Volodymyr Saldo and Oleksandr Volkov (seated). Photo: screenshot of the occupation media video

Volkov's illegal activities were documented by the occupiers themselves, who released a video about the voting in the so-called referendum of Volodymyr Saldo, the head of the occupation administration of Kherson region. Oleksandr Volkov was giving the governor of the region a ballot. The man was also recognized by witnesses who testified in court.

He was sentenced to ten years in prison with confiscation of property. Additionally, Volkov is banned from holding public office for 15 years.

Volkov is currently being held in the temporarily occupied Skadovsk district in the left-bank Kherson region. The verdict has not yet entered into force.

Earlier, a resident of the Kherson region was imprisonedfor 5 yearsfor supporting public prosecution by prosecutors of the Beryslav District Prosecutor's Office in Kherson region . It was proved in courtthat in September 2022, she became a member of the so-called "precinct election commission" created by the occupation authorities on the territory of the Milivska village council to hold a pseudo-referendum on the secession of the Kherson region from Ukraine and its accession to the Russian Federation.

Earlier, the Uzhhorod City District Court of Zakarpattia region found 22-year-old Serhiy Saprykin from Kherson guilty of working for the enemy in the illegally created Department of the Penitentiary Service (USIN).

Earlier, a resident of Oleshky was sentenced to 10 years in prison with confiscation of property for collaboration. In July 2022, the woman took up the position of the so-called "Head of the Department of Labor and Social Protection in the Kherson District" in the illegally created body, the "Ministry of Labor and Social Policy of the Kherson Region".