A law enforcement officer from the Odesa region was taken into custody for justifying Russia's aggression

Even people who are supposed to uphold the law and defend the state sometimes find themselves implicated in criminal cases. In the Odesa region, investigators have uncovered a high-ranking law enforcement official who is suspected of supporting Russian aggression and publicly endorsing the actions of the aggressor country’s leadership.

This was reported by the press service of the State Bureau of Investigations.

As law enforcement officials determined, the lieutenant colonel’s unlawful statements were recorded during covert investigative (surveillance) operations conducted as part of another criminal proceeding. According to investigators, the official supported the decisions of Russia’s military and political leadership, praised the Russian president, and spoke favorably of the full-scale war launched by Russia against Ukraine.

The State Bureau of Investigations (DBR) emphasized that such actions did not go unnoticed by investigators, following which a separate criminal case was opened.

The law enforcement officer was notified of his status as a suspect under Part 3 of Article 436-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine—glorification of individuals who carried out the Russian Federation’s armed aggression against Ukraine, committed by a public official.

The court ordered the suspect to be held in pretrial detention. He was also suspended from his official duties for the duration of the pretrial investigation. If found guilty, the lieutenant colonel faces up to eight years in prison. The pretrial investigation is ongoing.

In addition, enemy agents spent more than three years gathering information on Ukrainian military personnel, setting fire to energy facilities in the Odesa region, and setting up caches of explosives.  

According to the case file, they agreed to gather information forRussian intelligence services onthe deployment locations of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, their weaponry, and fortifications, as well as to carry out sabotage operations in the Odesa region. Both were sentenced to 15 years in prison with confiscation of property.

Анна Бальчінос