An anti-Maidan activist from Odesa has been charged with treason in Kropyvnytskyi

The Kirovohrad Regional Prosecutor's Office has announced that a former resident of Odesa is suspected of treason.

This was reported by the prosecutor’s office’s press service. 

According to the investigation, in early March 2025, the man voluntarily defected to the aggressor state. He enlisted in the “Bars-16” volunteer Cossack special forces unit within the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, took an oath of allegiance to the aggressor state, and set out to participate in combat operations against Ukraine. Currently, according to the investigation, he continues to fight against his own country.

In addition to participating in combat operations, the investigation established that the suspect aided the Russian occupiers by passing on information about Ukrainian military personnel and repeatedly and publicly supported the Russian Federation’s aggressive policy toward Ukraine. His participation in pro-Russian separatist events in Odesa in 2014 has also been documented.

Earlier, the military counterintelligence unit of the Security Service of Ukraine detained a resident of Chornomorsk, Odesa Oblast, in the Kyiv region on suspicion of collaborating with Russian intelligence services. The detainee was involved in one of the Russian Federation’s largest attacks on the Ukrainian capital, which took place on May 24, 2026. Furthermore, following that shelling, she was preparing new Russian attacks on Kyiv.

The Odesa Regional Prosecutor’s Office has also referred to court a case against a man and a woman from Izmail who are charged with treason during martial law, committed as part of a conspiracy. If found guilty oftreason, the defendants face imprisonment for a term of fifteen years or life imprisonment, along with confiscation of property.

As of early June, according to the regional prosecutor’s office, 17 residents of the Odesa region had already been designated as suspects in treason cases since the beginning of 2026, 12 of whom are men aged 21 to 48, and five are women aged 28 to 60.

Кирило Бойко