Kakhovka District Council Deputy Sentenced to 8 Years for Collaboration

The court found the deputy of the Kakhovka District Council guilty of collaboration and sentenced him to 8 years in prison with confiscation of property.

According to the Kherson Regional Prosecutor's Office, the man was also banned from holding positions in state authorities, local governments and state-owned enterprises for 15 years.

The investigation established that during the temporary occupation, the MP voluntarily agreed to take the position of the so-called "Head of the Department of Fisheries Organization and Regulation of the Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries of Kherson Region". In this pseudo-position, he performed organizational, administrative and economic functions, cooperating with the occupiers.

Prosecutors from the Specialized Environmental Prosecutor's Office of the Kherson Regional Prosecutor's Office were able to prove his guilt in court.

According to media reports, it is Igor Dykukha. Before the outbreak of full-scale war, he headed the Novokakhovka fish farm for partial fish and was the head of the village of Raiske in the Novokakhovka community. After the invasion of Russian troops, his eco-estate "Rybatskyi Khutir", located on the right bank of the Kherson region, was destroyed by the occupiers.

At the end of April 2022, Dykukha resigned from his post as starosta and left for Georgia. However, he later moved to live with his children in Crimea and later settled in occupied Henichesk.

There he started working in the so-called "ecology department" of the occupation administration of the city. He also introduced himself as the "Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries" of the Kherson region.

Thanks to his support, the Russian occupiers looted the fishing industry in the region, including fish farms in Nova Kakhovka and Hola Prystan. Ihor Dykusa was assisted in this by Yuriy Kovalev, a deputy of the Kherson Regional Council. They smuggled fish to Crimea to be used to stock Ukrainian water bodies.

In September 2023, Dykukha was notified of suspicion of collaboration. At the end of April 2024, the Central District Court of Mykolaiv ordered the seizure of most of his real estate.

Meanwhile, a resident of Simferopol became a "deputy of the regional council" after the pseudo-elections, actively contributed to the occupation regime and helped the Russian military. For this, he received a suspicion from the prosecutor's office. In addition, the prosecutor's office served suspicion notices in absentia to two residents of the region for collaboration.

The SBU also exposed and served suspicion notices to three residents of Kherson region who cooperated with the occupiers and took administrative positions in illegal authorities.

Андрій Колісніченко