Kherson region: SBU exposes Themis servant from occupation court

The SBU has served a notice of suspicion to a former judge who, after the occupation of Crimea, sided with Russia and became a judge of the occupation court in Kherson region. The investigation believes that he contributed to the establishment of the occupation authorities and participated in the political persecution of Crimean Tatars.

This is evidenced by the suspicion of the Prosecutor General's Office.

The investigation established that Anatoliy Vasylenko, a native of Kyiv region, violated his oath as a judge and joined the Russian Federation after the annexation of Crimea in 2014.

In October 2025, by Presidential Decree No. 706, he was appointed a "judge of the Kherson Regional Court" established by the occupation administration in Genichesk. According to the investigation, he then began working in the interests of the aggressor state and making illegal decisions on behalf of the Russian Federation in the temporarily occupied territory of the Kherson region.

According to the Chesno movement, he began to administer "justice" on behalf of the aggressor state in the illegally established courts of the occupied Crimea. At the same time, according to the activists, for some time the judge continued to certify decisions with the stamp of Ukraine, while passing them "in the name of the Russian Federation".

Also, according to the Crimean Human Rights Group, the judge is involved in cases of persecution of Crimean Tatars and other Ukrainian citizens.

Among the documented cases are decisions on the detention of Crimean Tatars Zavur Abdullayev, Rustem Tairov, Rustem Murasov, Dzhebbar Bekirov and Viktor Stashevsky on charges of Hizb ut-Tahrir. He also opened a criminal case against Jehovah's Witness Viktor Stashevsky from Sevastopol.

It is known that Vasylenko has a Ukrainian law degree. In 2000, he graduated from the Yaroslav the Wise National Law Academy of Ukraine, and in 2008 from the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, where he received a master's degree in law and the qualification of an officer of the military department of the operational and tactical level.

Nevertheless, after the occupation of Crimea, he remained working in the system of Russian occupation courts. In December 2014, he was appointed "judge of the Leninsky District Court of Sevastopol" by Presidential Decree No. 786.

Also, while Crimean residents were imprisoned in trumped-up cases, Russian judges were vacationing in the Maldives, Dubai and Cuba. Human rights activists have made public the names of judges who became part of the Russian repressive machine after the occupation of the peninsula.

Анна Бальчінос