Former police officers from Crimea became part of the Russian occupation police

Two former law enforcement officers from Crimea are suspected of high treason for collaborating with the occupation authorities. One of them is still working in the structure of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, the other has been promoted several times.

This was reported by the press service of the Prosecutor's Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol.

Under the procedural guidance of law enforcement officers, two former employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine were served with a notice of suspicion of treason under Part 1 of Article 111 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. This article provides for up to 15 years in prison.

According to the investigation, since 2009, the suspects have been working as operatives in the criminal investigation units of the Kerch City Department and Kirovsky District Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. In 2014, after the beginning of the occupation of Crimea, they betrayed their oath and joined Russian law enforcement agencies.

One of them initially took the position of acting head of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs department in Yevpatoriya. In 2022, he was appointed head of the Intermunicipal Department of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs "Saksky", and in May 2025 - head of the department.

Another, after the occupation of the peninsula, agreed to become the head of the police department No. 1 of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Kirovsky district, where he still works.

The investigation believes that by their actions, both defendants assisted the aggressor state in subversive activities against Ukraine, as well as in the establishment and functioning of the occupation law enforcement system in Crimea.

Separately, the court is considering an indictment against one of the suspects under the article on collaboration. The pre-trial investigation is being conducted by the Investigation Department of the Security Service of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.

The State Bureau of Investigation also served a notice of suspicion of high treason and desertion to former Armed Forces serviceman Oleksiy Honcharov, a native of Yalta, who did not leave the occupied Crimea in 2014 and voluntarily joined the Russian armed forces.

In early July, law enforcement officers completed an investigation into the former commander of the SevastopolBerkut and his subordinates who participated in the dispersal of protests in Kyiv in 2014 and contributed to the occupation of Crimea. They are suspected of high treason and war crimes, which could result in life imprisonment.

Анна Бальчінос