Former rescuer from Crimea lost his property for working for the Ministry of Emergency Situations in Kherson region under the occupiers

The court sentenced a former rescuer from Crimea to 10 years in prison for collaborating with the occupiers in Kherson region. He voluntarily headed the illegal emergency service and now has lost both his property and his rank.

As reported by the Center for Investigative Journalism with reference to the verdict, Hennadiy Oleksiyovych Bryzytskyi, a native of Yevpatoria, voluntarily took a leadership position in the illegally created "Service for Civil Defense, Emergencies and Disaster Relief" on July 1, 2022, which was later renamed by the occupiers as the "Ministry of Emergency Situations of Kherson Region".

He gave interviews to pro-Russian media and supported the activities of the occupation body. One of the witnesses in the case said that the creation of this pseudo-government agency in the Kherson region began in June 2022, at the same time the Russian military began to occupy the premises and involve their people in the work.

The court found Bryzytskyi guilty under Part 5 of Article 111-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine - collaboration. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison with confiscation of all property and a ban on holding any public office for 15 years. He was also stripped of his special rank of "junior sergeant".

The confiscation included: half of a land plot in the Priboy cooperative in the Yevpatoria district of Crimea, ½ of a residential building with outbuildings (85.3 square meters), half of the land plot under them, ½ of an apartment of 64.7 square meters, and a 1997 VAZ 2121 car. The verdict has not yet entered into force.

Until 2014, Bryzytsky served as the head of the Yevpatoria City Department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and was a member of the city council from the Party of Regions. After the annexation of the peninsula, he supported the actions of the Russian Federation and joined its structures. In 2023, he worked as a department head in the occupation Ministry of Emergency Situations in Kherson region, and retired in the summer of the same year.

Also, Oleh Burlakov, a 43-year-old resident of the Kherson region, was found guilty of treason. In 2022, he headed a school set up by the invaders on the basis of the seized Novozburyevsky Lyceum, where he had previously worked as a biology teacher. A witness saw Burlakov installing a Russian flag at the school and declaring that "Russia is here forever." The court sentenced him in absentia to 15 years in prison with confiscation of property.

Анна Бальчінос