Resident of Kherson region cheated by occupants for money for referendum

In the Kherson region, a woman helped the occupiers hold a pseudo-referendum for which she was supposed to receive money, but was never paid. The court found her guilty of collaboration and she will now spend five years behind bars.

This was reported by the Center for Investigative Journalism with reference to the court' s verdict.

A resident of the Kherson region, who held a pseudo-referendum for the Russian occupiers, was sentenced to 5 years in prison. During the trial, she tried to justify herself by claiming coercion, but even her own witnesses confirmed her guilt.

On June 5, the Ivano-Frankivsk City Court found Svitlana Tsareva, a native of the Moldovan city of Bender who lived in the village of Novomykolaivka in the Vysokopilska community in the Kherson region, guilty of collaboration. In 2022, she voluntarily joined the so-called precinct election commission and participated in the illegal referendum for the Russian invaders.

Together with the armed military of the Russian Federation, Tsareva went around the houses of her fellow villagers, offering to vote for joining Russia. She was promised 50 thousand rubles for participating in the organization of the vote, but later the amount was reduced to 30 thousand. However, she never received the money.

In April 2024, Svetlana Tsareva and her husband Gennadiy Tsarev were detained by Ukrainian law enforcement officers. In court, the woman stated that her participation in the referendum was forced, as she was allegedly threatened with death for refusing to participate. According to her, she had already survived the war - in 1992, she fled Transnistria after the invasion of Russian troops, and sought safety in the Kherson region.

However, witnesses in court confirmed that there was no physical pressure on the members of the election commission, and the referendum was held not during the period of active terror, but later.

The court found Tsaryova guilty under Part 5 of Article 111-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine - collaboration - and sentenced her to 5 years in prison with confiscation of property. She was also deprived of the right to hold public office for 10 years.

Oleh Burlakov, a 43-year-old resident of the village of Nova Zburyivka in the Kherson region, was also found guilty of treason for collaborating with the Russian occupiers. In 2022, he headed a school that the invaders set up on the basis of the seized Novozburyivka lyceum, where he had previously taught biology.

Анна Бальчінос