Only three courts are still operating in the Kherson region following the occupation

Before Russia’s full-scale invasion, there were 24 local and district courts operating in the Kherson region. Currently, only three courts are functioning in the region, handling cases from nearly the entire region.

This is according to a study by the Center for Public Investigations and the publication Intent.

After the outbreak of the full-scale war, the territorial jurisdiction of the Kherson courts was temporarily transferred to courts in the Dnipropetrovsk and Odesa regions. In May 2023, the High Council of Justice returned jurisdiction to within the Kherson region, but concentrated it in a few courts that were able to continue operating.

Today, the functions of the region’s courts are performed by the Velyka Oleksandrivka District Court, the Novovorontsov District Court, and the Kherson City Court. They hear cases from nearly all of the region’s relocated courts.

In addition, commercial cases from the Kherson region have been transferred to the Commercial Court of the Odesa region, and administrative cases to the Odesa District Administrative Court.

Recently, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) announced that it had placed a former judge under suspicion; after the occupation of Crimea, he defected to the Russian Federation and became a judge in the occupation court in the Kherson region. Investigators believe that he helped establish the occupying authorities and participated in the political persecution of Crimean Tatars.

Earlier,Serhiy Varnak, a former judge of the Kherson District Administrative Court, was notified of charges of collaboration. He is suspected of voluntarily assuming a position in illegal judicial bodies in the temporarily occupied territory. However, he did not actually succeed in becoming a judge of the occupying “arbitration court.”

As a reminder, a former judge from the Kherson region was found guilty of treason and collaboration. For the aggregate of her crimes, she was sentenced tolifeimprisonment with confiscation of property.

The Kherson City Court found former judge Yulia Berlima guilty of treason and collaboration. She had served as a judge since 2009 and, during the full-scale Russian invasion, headed the Henichesk District Court in the Kherson region. 

Андрій Колісніченко