Calling on teachers to go over to the enemy: Kherson educator sentenced

A former teacher from Kherson region was sentenced for collaboration. She urged teachers to go over to the enemy and was sentenced to 2 years in prison.

This is evidenced by the verdict of the Novovorontsov District Court of the Kherson region.

The court found that in 2023 she headed a school illegally established by the occupiers in the village of Rubanivka, Kakhovka district. She agitated teachers to work for the enemy, introduced the educational standards of the occupying country, conducted propaganda activities, organized the celebration of Victory Day and the all-Russian competition Teacher of the Year 2024.

The woman was charged with part 3 of Article 111-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine - collaborationism. The court found her guilty and sentenced her to two years in prison in absentia.

In addition, the collaborator is banned from holding any positions with organizational, administrative, and economic functions in state authorities, local governments, public administration, or institutions providing public services, as well as from engaging in educational and upbringing activities for 13 years after serving her main sentence. The verdict has not yet entered into force.

According to the Myrotvorets Center, it is Svitlana Nedbaylo, who taught Ukrainian language and literature and legally headed the Velykolepetsky Lyceum from 2021 to July 2023.

According to the CJR, her colleagues said that in the summer of 2022, Nedbaylo called on the community's teachers to go over to the side of the occupiers, and in the spring of 2023, she tried to convince the Ukrainian authorities that she was allegedly loyal to Ukraine. However, this did not work: her contract was not renewed, and she was dismissed from the position of lyceum director.

In 2023, Nedbaylo was photographed together with Russian Senator Konstantin Basyuk, who illegally visited Rubanivska school. The occupation publics noted that this educational institution is now the only functioning school in the so-called Velykolepetskyi district, which the occupiers included two communities in the Kakhovka district.

Also last year, in December, the court allowed an investigation against the head of a Kherson kindergarten on suspicion of collaborating with the occupation authorities of the Russian Federation. She allegedly implemented the educational standards of the aggressor state in the temporarily occupied territory.

Анна Бальчінос