In Odesa, a female cardiologist was convicted of working for the occupying forces in Kherson

During the occupation of Kherson, a female official at the city hospital agreed to cooperate with the Russian administration, took charge of an illegally established medical facility, and carried out the occupiers’ orders. Several years later, a court in Odesa dismissed the case. 

This was reported by the Center for Public Investigations.

The investigation established that after the capture of Kherson in June 2022, Russian military personnel removed the legitimate director of the municipal nonprofit enterprise “Kherson City Hospital Named After Afanasy and Olga Tropin,” Leonid Remiga, from his duties.

After that, Dr. Iryna Svyrydova voluntarily agreed to head the medical institution created by the occupying authorities, which was formed on the basis of the seized hospital. She received her appointment from the occupying administration and began managing the facility according to the rules established by the Russian authorities.

According to the case file, under her leadership, hospital employees began receiving their salaries in Russian rubles in accordance with the occupying administration’s decisions to introduce a dual-currency system. In addition, she banned the use of the Ukrainian eHealth system, effectively bringing the medical facility’s operations into line with the standards of the occupying authorities.

A separate incident involved a 2019 Renault Duster company car belonging to the hospital. The court concluded that, following a verbal order from the director, the car was handed over to the occupying administration. After that, the vehicle disappeared, and its whereabouts remain unknown. Experts estimated the damages at nearly 720 thousand hryvnias.

During the trial, the criminal case files were reviewed, and hospital employees were questioned. Witnesses confirmed that the woman voluntarily collaborated with the occupiers, signed documents on behalf of an illegally established institution, organized the payment of salaries in rubles, and managed the operations of the seized medical facility.

She was charged in 2023. Before the start of the full-scale war, she worked as a cardiologist and headed the cardiology department at Tropin Hospital; she later moved to the “Dnipromed” Medical Center and eventually returned to the same hospital.

The court found Irina Sviridova guilty. Since she is in a temporarily occupied territory, the verdict was handed down in absentia. She was sentenced to 12 years in prison, barred for 15 years from holding managerial and administrative positions in state and municipal institutions, and all her property was confiscated.

In addition, the court granted the hospital’s civil claim and ordered the convicted woman to pay nearly 720,000 hryvnias in compensation for the loss of a company car, as well as the costs of the expert examination.

Furthermore, a luxury apartment, parking spaces, and commercial premises in Kyivbelonging to Valerii Saltikov, a deputy of the Kherson Regional Council, became central to a case of collaboration in the Kherson region. The prosecutor’s office insisted that the property be seized.

Анна Бальчінос