Vitaliy Gura Leads Occupation Administration in Nova Kakhovka - SBU Investigation

Vitaliy Gura , a 46-year-old resident of Nova Kakhovka in the Kherson region, agreed to lead the local occupation administration. For this, he received a suspicion from the SBU.

According to the Center for Investigative Journalism, Gura is now recruiting and appointing employees of the so-called "administration". He manages them, receives citizens, and represents the interests of the occupiers in the courts of the Russian Federation."

According to the CPJ, before the occupation of Nova Kakhovka by the Russian military, Vitaliy Gura was the legal elder of the village of Dnipryany in the local community and a person close to the longtime mayor Volodymyr Kovalenko. In 2019, he worked as the chief mechanic of the City Vodokanal utility company of the Novokakhovka City Council, and before that he worked for Khersongaz and Teplovi Nets.

From the very beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, Vitaliy Gura sided with the enemy and was involved in repressions against the heads of communities in the Kakhovka district. In 2022-2023, he worked as a deputy to the then-governor of Nova Kakhovka, Volodymyr Leontiev.

Earlier, Ukrainian special services and law enforcement officers detained a collaborator who, during the first months of the full-scale Russian invasion, headed the occupation "police" in Nova Kakhovka in the Kherson region. At the end of 2024, the man settled in Volyn under the guise of an ordinary citizen and rented a house. However, law enforcement officers established his whereabouts and detained him.

In addition, the court sentenced 41-year-old Kateryna Hrybovska from Nova Kakhovka, who held the position of "chief doctor" of a local hospital in Kherson region seized by the occupiers. She was found guilty of collaboration and propaganda of Russian aggression. She was sentenced to 11 years in prison with confiscation of property. The court also handed down a verdict in absentia to an inspector of the Chongar border guard service who betrayed Ukraine at the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion. He did not comply with the order and voluntarily went over to the side of the aggressor state.

Олеся Ланцман