Ochakiv mayor fails to appear in court in high treason case against ex-commander

The former commander of the 73rd Naval Special Forces Center, who is now accused of treason and worked in the Ochakiv City Council, said he did not understand why Mayor Serhiy Bychkov did not come for questioning in his case.

This was reported by MikVisti.

Bychkov is actually a key witness in the case of his former subordinate and former commander of the 73rd Naval Special Operations Center Eduard Shevchenko. The investigation believes that the accused acted on the orders of Russian special services and was supposed to try to recruit the official.

The court planned to interrogate the mayor of Ochakiv on January 27, but he did not appear due to another business trip. Shevchenko said that he also wondered why the mayor was avoiding interrogation, noting that the war was ongoing and some people were traveling around the country, and added that he had a lot of questions for the mayor.

Earlier, the court heard a fragment of Bychkov 's conversation with the Russian side, which took place under the supervision of the SBU. The ex-commander's case has been under consideration since February 6.

Eduard Shevchenko is a former military man who took part in the fighting in eastern Ukraine. In 2014-2016, he commanded a special forces unit and received a number of state awards, including the Bohdan Khmelnytsky and the Order of Courage. In 2016, he became the head of the 73rd Naval Center, but a year later he was dismissed by a decision of the military medical commission. He considered the dismissal to be politically motivated. During his detention, the SBU reported that he tried to recruit the mayor of Bychkiv.

At the time of Russia's full-scale invasion, the defendant worked in the Ochakiv City Council, where he was in charge of security and video surveillance. According to the SBU, he was a Russian agent with the pseudonym "Master" who collected information about the situation in Ochakiv and passed it on to the Russians.

In March 2023, the SBU detained him and charged him with high treason committed under martial law.

Анна Бальчінос