Former member of Kherson City Council loses property and freedom

In Kherson, a court found guilty in absentia a former city council official who voluntarily sided with Russia during the occupation of the city and was given a senior position in the illegally created occupation administration.

TheCenter for Public Investigations investigated the collaborator's history, as well as her income when she was still working in the Kherson City Council.

It is about Iryna Chekhun, the former chief accountant of the Department of State Architectural and Construction Control of the Kherson City Council.

Conspiracy and work for the occupation authorities

As the court found, in July 2022, while in occupied Kherson and having many years of experience in the field of finance and budget, she agreed to cooperate with the occupation authorities. After submitting her application, she was appointed as the so-called "Head of the Revenue and Consolidated Budget of the Department of Budget and Finance" in the pseudo-organization "Kherson City State Administration". In this position, she was actually responsible for managing the budgetary flows of the seized city.

SCREEN SHOT: ct.mk.court.gov.ua

Before her appointment, Chekhun was in contact with some employees of the city council's financial department, whom she met in Kherson. It was during these meetings that she was offered to continue her work in the structure of the occupation administration.

To complicate her identification and avoid responsibility, the woman used the pseudonym"Iryna Verbytska", under which she appeared in the internal documents of the occupation authorities. From July to November 2022, she was involved in the formation and control of local budget expenditures, financing of the housing and communal services of Kherson, and analyzing the effectiveness of budget expenditures.

After the de-occupation of Kherson, the illegal administration was transferred to the occupied Henichesk. Chekhun, along with other representatives of the occupation authorities, moved there and continued to work in the same position. According to the SBU, in Genichesk, her activities were aimed at implementing the decisions of the aggressor state and creating a positive image of the occupation authorities in the occupied territory of Kherson region.

Wanted and sentenced by the court

In July 2024, the SBU notified her of suspicion of collaboration. At the end of July, she was put on the national wanted list, and in August, she was put on the international wanted list. The same year, a court seized her property, including a 2017 FIAT TIPO, a residential property, and a land plot of more than one hectare on the territory of the Komyshany village council.

SCREEN SHOT: gp.gov.ua

Based on the results of the case, the court concluded that Iryna Chekhun voluntarily took a position in an illegal government body in the temporarily occupied territory. She was sentenced in absentia to 8 years in prison, banned from holding public office and providing public services for 13 years, and all her property was confiscated.

Career, income and credit

Before Russia's full-scale invasion, Chekhun worked in the financial sector of local government. Born in Kherson, she has a university degree and a long career as an accountant and financier. Over the years, she has held positions in the Komyshany village council, Kherson city and regional councils, and since 2018 she has worked as the chief accountant of the Department of State Architectural and Construction Control of the Kherson City Council, which is where she was caught in the full-scale invasion.

According to her 2021 declaration, the former official owned a room in Kherson and a land plot in Komyshany. She also owned a FIAT TIPO car purchased in 2018 for 450 thousand hryvnias. The main source of income was her salary - she received more than UAH 326 thousand during the year. In addition, the official declared a small income from renting property and a bank loan worth over UAH 457 thousand.

SCREENSHOT: YouControl

In December last year, the court also sentenced another Kherson official who was a collaborator. During the occupation, the director of a utility company, Serhiy Rotonos, agreed to take a leadership position in the so-called "Ministry of Youth Policy and Sports of the Kherson Region" created by the Russian occupiers. He was sentenced to nine years in prison for collaboration.

Анна Бальчінос