Former Justice Ministry official calls for seizure of power in Kherson

In June 2022, Yuriy Ryzhov, a resident of Kherson, headed one of the units of the occupation "tax service" in Kherson region. The court found him guilty of collaboration and sentenced him in absentia.

This was reported by the Center for Investigative Journalism.

This is not the first sentence in his biography. Back in 2017, Ryzhov was sentenced to a suspended sentence for public calls for violent change and seizure of state power in Ukraine. The investigation then found that he administered pro-Russian and separatist communities on social media and had been openly campaigning for the creation of the so-called Kherson People's Republic since 2014.

The convicted person is Ryzhov Yuriy Mykolayovych, born on October 2, 1991, a native and resident of Kherson. The court concluded that in June 2022, he voluntarily took up the position of Head of the Legal Department in the occupation tax service of the Kherson region.

Witnesses who worked as security guards in this structure said that Ryzhov regularly came to work, worked on computers and had his own office. Another witness, a system administrator of the occupation's "state treasury," said in court that Ryzhov configured equipment for the occupiers and installed software in accordance with Russian tax law.

According to the court, his apartment and two land plots were confiscated. He was also banned from holding public office for 15 years.

The court also took into account Ryzhov's long-standing pro-Russian stance. Back in the spring of 2014, he created a separatist group on social media, Novorossiya - NGO "Guardian Front" - Kherson, where he published anti-Ukrainian posts and called for a violent seizure of power. He also participated in mass meetings of local separatists.

In the summer of 2014, Ryzhov left for the temporarily occupied Yalta, but returned to Kherson in early 2016. There, he got a job as the head of the social and psychological work department in the Northern Correctional Colony No. 90. In November 2016, he was detained, and on April 5, 2017, the court found him guilty under Part 2 of Article 109 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. At that time, he entered into a plea agreement with the prosecutor, received a three-year prison sentence without confiscation of property, and was released from serving his sentence with a probationary period of one year.

According to YouControl, in 2018-2019, Ryzhov worked as a chief specialist in the sector of judicial work and international cooperation of the Main Territorial Department of Justice in Kherson region. In 2020-2021, he held the positions of Chief Specialist and later Head of the Judicial Work and International Legal Assistance Sector at the Southern Interregional Department of the Ministry of Justice.

In 2020, Russian propaganda resources also disseminated a video allegedly showing the beating of Yuriy Ryzhov because of his pro-Russian views.

Also, a former employee of a Ukrainian court in the Kherson region began working for the Russians after the occupation and got a job in an illegal "court" in Henichesk. She was sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison with confiscation of property for her participation in the repression of abducted residents of the region.

Анна Бальчінос