A former portrait painter from Kakhovka became a mouthpiece of the enemy in Crimea

The Security Service of Ukraine has announced a new suspicion against pro-Russian blogger Dmytro Taran from Kakhovka. Investigators believe that he worked as a mouthpiece for Kremlin propaganda, hiding behind the fictitious status of an "intelligence officer."

This is evidenced by the suspicion of the Prosecutor General's Office.

According to the investigation, Taran systematically spread pro-Russian narratives through his own YouTube channel. In his videos, he claimed that Ukraine was "an integral part of Russia" and presented Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine as an alleged "liberation mission" and "a proxy war with NATO and the collective West."

At the same time, he blamed the war on the United States and Western countries, calling the events of 2014 a "coup d'état" and Russia a "peacekeeper" acting by force.

Investigators paid special attention to the fact that in his speeches he regularly introduced himself as an "intelligence officer" to convince the audience of his competence in military and socio-political issues. In fact, according to law enforcement, he has no connection to the intelligence agencies. In his video messages, Taran spoke about his alleged studies in Kyiv at the Faculty of Radio Technical Intelligence and his many years of work with analytical materials, using this as an argument to impose his ideological views.

The investigation also found that the blogger not only supported the occupation of Ukrainian territories, but also openly admired people involved in war crimes. In particular, he glorified the founder of the Wagner PMC Yevgeny Prigozhin and the head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov, calling them "strong", "brave" and "true patriots", and spoke positively about the Russian military, who participated in the armed aggression against Ukraine.

The suspicion materials also say that Taran tried to give his statements additional weight by referring to Soviet figures and historical figures, as well as to the laws and "constitution" of the self-proclaimed "LPR." During one of the public events, he spread ideas about the expediency of banning the Ukrainian language in the temporarily occupied territories and its complete ousting from public life.

Based on the totality of these actions, the suspect was charged with encroachment on the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine, justification of armed aggression by the Russian Federation, as well as repeated justification of the war and praise of those who carry it out. These are part one of Article 110 and parts two and three of Article 436-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

According to media reports, Taran lived in Kakhovka until 2003 and earned his living by painting portraits in Nova Kakhovka. Later, he moved to Crimea, where he headed the Yalta Film Studio in 2006-2010 and was involved in filmmaking. One of his first projects was called How to Kiss a Woman in 20 Minutes.

After the occupation of Crimea, he openly supported the illegal annexation of the peninsula and participated in an illegal congress to create the so-called "Novorossia" as a delegate from the Kherson region. Even then, he publicly referred to the Kherson region as "the former region of the Southeast of the former Ukraine".

For many years, he wrote a blog on LiveJournal under the pseudonym "Count Kakhovsky," where he posted anti-Ukrainian messages, including disparaging language about the Ukrainian government and people. At the time, these resources were not very popular.

Until 2024, Dmytro Taran served as the director of the occupation's Yalta Film Studio. He also positioned himself as a family counselor, an "expert in the field of relationships and personal growth" and a representative of the Committee of Veterans of the Russian special services.

According to the YouControl system, YALTA TARAN PRODUCTION was registered in 2010 with an authorized capital of one thousand hryvnias. The founder of the company is Yevheniia Taran, a resident of Kakhovka. The principal activity of the company is film production, with additional activities including advertising, distribution and demonstration of films, as well as other artistic and entertainment activities. As of now, the company is not formally in the process of being wound up.

In July 2025, the National Police, together with the ARMA, identified Taran's assets. During the search operations, law enforcement officers found luxury cars, residential real estate and land plots, as well as agricultural machinery, firearms and corporate contributions worth more than UAH 500,000.

Анна Бальчінос