From Ukraine’s State Emergency Service in Crimea to the occupying Ministry of Emergency Situations: A Crimean defector was convicted in the Kherson region

From working for Ukraine’s State Emergency Service to holding a leadership position in the occupying Ministry of Emergency Situations—that’s the path taken by a former rescuer from Crimea. A former graduate of a Ukrainian fire safety institute, who served as a Ukrainian rescuer for over ten years, did not hesitate to switch sides and became the face of the occupiers’ propaganda campaigns. 

This was reported by Intent, citing a ruling by the Kherson City Court. 

According to the investigation, Valery Golubovich, a native of Crimea, joined Russian agencies after the occupation of the peninsula and later assumed a leadership position in the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations’ office in the temporarily occupied part of the Kherson region. 

The court established that in September 2023, the man voluntarily assumed the position of deputy head of the so-called “Main Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations for the Kherson Region”—an illegal law enforcement agency created by the Russian occupation administration. According to the court’s findings, he facilitated the functioning of the occupying structure and the consolidation of Russian authority in the temporarily occupied territory of the Kherson region.

According to the Center for Investigative Journalism,Golubovich was born on February 1, 1981, in the village of Lozove, Simferopol District, Autonomous Republic of Crimea, and resided in Simferopol. He graduated from the Cherkasy Institute of Fire Safety named after the Heroes of Chernobyl and worked for over ten years in units of the Ukrainian State Emergency Service.

At the time of the occupation of Crimea in 2014, he headed the training and service organization sector of the Emergency Response Management Division of the Main Directorate of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. As early as March of that same year, he moved to a similar position within the illegally established Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations (EMERCOM) in Crimea.

Over the following years, he continued his career in Russian law enforcement agencies. From 2021 to 2023, he served as a senior inspector in the Department of Personnel, Educational Work, and Professional Training of the occupying Ministry of Emergency Situations in Crimea, and in 2023, he became an assistant to the head of that same agency in the occupied part of the Kherson region.

During the trial, the court examined numerous pieces of evidence, including documents, materials from open sources, photographs, video recordings, and publications from official sources. In these materials, the man is repeatedly seen wearing the uniform of the Russian agency during staff meetings, official events, propaganda campaigns, and ceremonies attended by representatives of the occupying authorities.

He was also identified by a former colleague from the Crimean branch of the State Emergency Service, who confirmed that after the occupation of the peninsula, he voluntarily remained to work for Russian agencies.Golubovich was found guilty and sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison with confiscation of property.

The court alsofound 75-year-old Kherson resident Tetyana Kamenska—an Honored Journalist ofUkraine and owner of the “VTV Plus” television channel—guilty of collaboration in absentia. She was sentenced to 12 years in prison with the confiscation of all her property.

Анна Бальчінос