Two Ukrainian Collaborators Sentenced to 8 Years for Roles in Crimea's Occupation Government

The convicts are citizens of Ukraine who voluntarily agreed to take up senior positions in the occupation authorities on the peninsula.

According to the prosecutor's office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, one of the convicts was appointed "Deputy Minister of Emergency Situations of the Republic of Crimea" in April 2022, where he still works. And another, as the head of the occupying Crimean Interregional Department of State Road Supervision of the Federal Transport Supervision Service, was appointed "Deputy Minister of Transport of the Republic of Crimea" in July 2023.

"In the performance of their duties, the convicts directly implemented the policy of the aggressor state, as well as ensured the functioning of its occupation executive bodies in Crimea," the agency added.

Thus, two occupation deputy ministers from Crimea were sentenced in absentia under the public prosecution of the Crimean prosecutor's office. They were found guilty of committing collaboration and sentenced to 8 years in prison with disqualification to hold positions related to civil service and local government for 10 years and confiscation of property.

Earlier, three former judges from Crimea were sentenced in absentia. They were found guilty of high treason and sentenced to 12 and 13 years in prison respectively. One of them held the position of "judge of the Zaliznychny District Court of Simferopol", and the other two were "judges" in the occupation Kirovsky and Simferopol District Courts of the Republic of Crimea.

Also, a former deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea of the VI convocation, who in the spring of 2014 supported the decision of to hold a "pan-Crimean referendum", was sentenced to 13 years in prison for treason. The convict is also subject to international sanctions imposed by the EU, the US, the UK, Australia, Japan, etc.

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