A former investigator from Crimea is suspected of collaborating with Russian forces in the Kherson region

Russian forces continue to establish their own judicial system in the occupied territories, recruiting Ukrainian citizens into it. One such individual is a law enforcement officer from Crimea who began working as a judge in the occupied Kherson region.

This is evidenced by allegations made by the Office of the Prosecutor General.

The Security Service of Ukraine announced that it has placed Arseniy Sukhodolov, a Ukrainian citizen, under investigation; investigators believe he is involved in the activities of illegal judicial bodies established by the Russian occupation administration in the temporarily occupied territory of the Kherson region. 

According to the investigation, the 43-year-old native of Simferopol voluntarily accepted a position in the so-called “Kherson Regional Court,” which was illegally established by the Russian occupation authorities. He has been charged with collaboration and voluntarily holding a position in illegal judicial bodies established in the temporarily occupied territory.

Investigators claim that no later than February 2024, Sukhodolov agreed to work in the occupying judicial body. 

According to the investigation, his actions facilitated the functioning of the occupation administration and the integration of the seized territory of Ukraine into the legal framework of the aggressor state. 

According to the Myrotvorets website, prior to the occupation of Crimea, Arseniy Sukhodolov worked in the Prosecutor’s Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, where he held the position of senior investigator for particularly important cases. After the Russian Federation seized the peninsula, he remained in the occupied territory and joined the law enforcement agencies established by the occupying authorities.

He subsequently served as deputy prosecutor of the Kyiv District of Simferopol within the Russian prosecutor’s office. He was born in Simferopol in 1981, graduated from Kharkiv National University of Internal Affairs, and resided in occupied Crimea.

The SBU also announced that it had charged former judge Anatoliy Vasilenko, who, following the occupation of Crimea, sided with the Russian Federation and became a judge in the occupation court in the Kherson region. Investigators believe that he helped consolidate the occupying authorities’ power and participated in the political persecution of Crimean Tatars.

Анна Бальчінос