In Odesa, a former police officer was sentenced for spreading Russian propaganda

Conversations that took place in a police office were used as evidence in a criminal case involving the justification of Russian aggression. The court focused on his statements regarding the war, the occupation of Ukrainian territories, and the Kremlin’s policies. 

This was reported by Intent, citing the verdict of the Primorsky District Court of Odesa.

According to the investigation, from January to March 2025, Mykhailo Kosovsky, a senior inspector in the domestic violence prevention unit of Odesa District Police Department No. 1, repeatedly expressed pro-Russian views to a colleague while working in his office. He claimed that“the war has already been lost,” predicted“the division of Ukraine along the Dnipro River,” stated that“Russia fairly reclaimed these territories,” and justified the occupation of Ukrainian regions.

The verdict cited dozens of his statements. In particular, he claimed that in Russia, contract service is voluntary and well-paid, whereas in Ukraine, peopleare allegedly “rounded up on minibuses and sent to the front.” He also convinced his interlocutor that Ukraine had already lost the war and that there would soon be a freeze on the front lines and negotiations regarding the territories.

In addition, the defendant justified the illegal incorporation of the occupied territories into the Russian Federation. He claimed that the so-called “DPR” and “LPR” were initially recognized as “independent states,” after which they allegedly legally requested to become part of the Russian Federation. He made similar claims regarding occupied Crimea.

The former police officer also explained the Russian invasion as stemming from the Kremlin’s desire to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO. According to him, Russia is allegedly fighting only for the territories of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions, as it considers them its own due to their Russian-speaking populations.

Separately, the case file recorded his statements that, following the occupation, residents of the seized territories“had long since received Russian passports,” as well as claims about the alleged presenceof “the most radical Nazis” among the soldiers of the “Azov” regiment.

During the trial, the former law enforcement officer entered into a plea agreement with the prosecutor and agreed to transfer 130,000 hryvnias from the bail posted on his behalf to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

The court sentenced him to five years in prison but suspended the sentence with a three-year probationary period. 

In early June, a court in Odesa refused to approve a plea agreement between the prosecutor’s office and a former police officer accused of justifying Russian aggression. Although the man pleaded guilty and agreed to transfer the funds to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the court considered the proposed sentence too lenient.

Анна Бальчінос