Occupation head of nature reserve in Kherson region sentenced

Thanks to the evidence base of the Specialized Environmental Prosecutor's Office of Kherson region, the court convicted a local resident for collaborating with the occupiers. The man was found guilty of collaboration under Part 7 of Art. 111-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which provides for liability for voluntarily holding positions in illegal law enforcement agencies established in the temporarily occupied territory.

This was reported by the Kherson Regional Prosecutor's Office.

The traitor was sentenced to 14 years in prison with confiscation of property. The investigation proved that the resident of Kherson region voluntarily cooperated with the invaders and headed an illegally created institution - the so-called 'State Autonomous Institution 'Black Sea Biosphere Reserve'. The enemy deployed this fake structure on the basis of the seized Black Sea Biosphere Reserve of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

As the 'director', the convict performed organizational, administrative and law enforcement functions in the interests of the occupation authorities, actually ensuring the operation of the stolen reserve under the flag of the Russian Federation.

In addition to the prison term, the man was deprived of the right to hold any positions in government or law enforcement agencies for 15 years. Since the verdict was passed in absentia, the convict will begin serving his sentence immediately after his arrest by Ukrainian law enforcement agencies.

The Kherson City Court sentenced a local resident, Natalia Zheltoukhova, who voluntarily cooperated with the Russian invaders during the occupation of the city. On January 8, 2026, she was found guilty of collaboration.

The investigation established that in August 2022, the woman, who was unemployed at the time, joined the occupation administration. She took up the position of a "passport officer" in an illegally created body of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs. In this position, Zheltoukhova was directly involved in accepting documents from local residents for the illegal registration of Russian citizenship and issuing passports of the aggressor country.

Law enforcement officers detained the collaborator in early 2024, after which she was under investigation. The court confirmed her guilt of aiding the occupation authorities and facilitating the forced passportization of the region.

Катерина Глушко