Former official of Kherson Regional Council gets 9 years in prison

During the occupation, the ex-director of a utility company headed sports in Kherson region and was featured in the occupiers' propaganda videos. He was sentenced to nine years for collaboration.

This is evidenced by the verdict of the Kherson City Court.

According to the case file, before the outbreak of full-scale war, he headed the municipal enterprise "Sport for All" and had long-standing professional contacts with many sports professionals. After the capture of Kherson by Russian troops, the accused began to keep in touch with part of the team and summoned employees to the enterprise building. He told one of the witnesses that the occupation authorities were allegedly planning to pay the employees 10 thousand rubles each, and thus began to prepare his subordinates for changes in the structure of sports management in favor of the Russians.

Several witnesses, former employees of the company, said they had known him for many years. According to them, during the occupation, he continued to stay in the city and kept in touch with part of the team. After the de-occupation of Kherson, he disappeared, but later they learned on social media that he was on the left bank of the Dnipro River and working for the occupiers in a senior position. Witnesses also identified him in photos and videos distributed by the Russian administration.

Based on the evidence collected, the court found that during the occupation, the accused voluntarily took a leadership position in the so-called "Ministry of Youth Policy and Sports of Kherson Region" created by the Russians and actually ensured the functioning of the illegal government in the temporarily occupied territory.

The sentence provides for nine years in prison, confiscation of all property and a 15-year ban on working in government.

According to media reports, the man in question is Serhiy Rotonos. Until the spring of 2023, he headed the Kherson Regional Center for Physical Health "Sport for All" of the Kherson Regional Council. He has been working in this structure since 2004, when he first became its director.

In 2016-2018, he was a leading specialist in the Department of Physical Culture and Organizational Work of the Department of Physical Culture and Sports of the Kherson Regional State Administration. In 2016, together with Olympic champion Serhiy Postrekhin, he created the Kherson Regional Trade Union of Physical Culture and Sports "Start", and in 2017 he co-founded the NGO "Sport for All.info".

In 2019, he became an advisor to the then chairman of the Kherson Regional Council, Vladyslav Manger, who was later convicted of organizing an attack on Kateryna Handziuk. In 2020, he ran for the Kherson District Council from Igor Kolikhayev's party "We Live Here!". In November 2022, shortly before the liberation of Kherson, Rotonos moved to the temporarily occupied left-bank part of the region, where he was employed by the occupation structures.

The former deputy of the Kakhovka City Council also voluntarily joined the occupation administration in 2022. He was in charge of investigative units in Kakhovka and Nova Kakhovka, passed information about pro-Ukrainian residents to the occupiers, intimidated people and put pressure on doctors to disclose patient data.

Анна Бальчінос