The Russians included only two local residents in the "Heroes of Kherson Region" program

Among the 12 participants of the Kherson Region Heroes program, which allegedly trains members and veterans of the "SVO" for leadership positions in occupation administrations, only two can be considered local residents.

This is stated in the Vhurhod investigation "Heroes of Kherson Region" with almost no Kherson residents. How Russia creates the myth of "its own" in a foreign land".

One of the program's participants is Valeriy Havryliuk, who was born in Kakhovka, Kherson region, but moved to Moscow in 2010. At the beginning of the so-called "SVO" he volunteered for the military, served for about a year and fought on the side of Russia in the Svatovo-Kupyansk direction.

In June 2023, Valeriy Havryliuk became the deputy governor of Kakhovka, Pavlo Filipchuk. Since April 2024, references to him as the first deputy head of the occupation administration of Kakhovka have disappeared.

Another participant, Artur Kantsyr, is from the village of Zelenivka, Kherson region. In 2012-2013, he took part in pro-Russian actions in Kherson. After graduating from high school, in 2014, Artur Kantsyr moved to Saratov and entered the Stolypin Volga Institute of Management. The same year, he went to fight on the side of pro-Russian militants in the Luhansk region and joined the neo-Nazi group Rusych, formed by radical Russian ultranationalists.

During the occupation of Kherson, he served in the Russian-established"Main Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Kherson Region", in the drug trafficking unit (the "Grom Group"). After his service, Kantsyr moved to Russia.

"Although the name of the program gives the impression that it is about residents of Kherson region, in fact, seven participants are Russian citizens, three are Crimeans who also have Russian passports and pro-Russian views," the investigation says.

Сергій Лозовський