Mykolaiv court considers case of ex-head of Northern colony on deportation of prisoners

The former head of the Northern Colony, Yevhen Sobolev, is accused of involvement in the forced deportation of almost a hundred Ukrainian prisoners from the Snihurivska colony in Mykolaiv region. According to the investigation, he collaborated with the occupiers and supervised the deportation of people to Crimea and Russia.

This was reported by Slidstvo.info.

According to the investigation,<span>after the beginning of the occupation, Sobolev agreed to work for the Russians and took the position of the so-called head of the "Kherson Oblast Penitentiary Service". It was under his leadership that on May 28, 2022, the Russian military invaded the territory of Snihurivska colony No. 5, where the convicts were held. </span>

<span>Soldiers armed with assault rifles threatened people, used stun grenades, beat them and forced them to get into trucks. The prisoners were then forcibly transferred to Holoprystan colony, and then to Northern colony no. 90. Later, they were sent to the occupied Crimea, and from there to Russia.</span>

In January 2024, Sobolev was notified in absentia of being suspected of violating the laws and customs of war, and earlier of treason. He has already been sentenced on the second charge, and the verdict has entered into force. The new deportation case is being considered by the Central District Court of Mykolaiv. The defendant himself does not attend the hearings.

Victims - former prisoners who survived the forced displacement - spoke at the court hearings. They testified that the Russians beat them, threatened to shoot them, did not provide medical care, and that the conditions of detention in the Russian colonies were inhumane. One of the witnesses directly named Sobolev as the person who ordered the deportation.

One of the witnesses said that that morning, a KrAZ truck with Russian military entered the colony. They threw noise grenades, fired in the air and ordered everyone to leave, threatening to shoot. The occupiers took about 98 convicts from Snihurivska colony, who were later transferred to occupied Simferopol and then to Russian penitentiaries. In the Russian colony, according to the victim, the prisoners were humiliated and threatened with murder. Now the former head of the Kherson colony faces up to 12 years in prison.

The return of these people is being handled by the NGO "Protection of Prisoners of Ukraine". According to its representative, Hanna Skrypka, they have managed to return about 20 deported convicts who were taken from the Snihurivska colony. The evacuation from Russia took place through the territory of Georgia.

Last fall, the Center for Public Investigations presented the documentary"Who Kidnapped the Prisoners of the Snihurivska Correctional Colony in the Village of Tsentralne".

For nine months, this village in Mykolaiv region was under occupation by the Russian military. In August 2022, the occupation authorities were even preparing a pseudo-referendum on the "annexation" of the territory, but the plans were thwarted by the Ukrainian defense forces, who liberated the region in November. Before the de-occupation, the Russians managed to kidnap local residents and all the convicts of the colony. The journalists of the Center for Public Integrity investigated who was behind these crimes.

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Анна Бальчінос