Former head of the Ministry of Agriculture of Crimea sentenced to 10 years in prison

The Svyatoshynskyi District Court of Kyiv has issued a guilty verdict against the former head of the Russian Ministry of Agriculture of Crimea.

According to the Center for Investigative Journalism, it is 52-year-old Andriy Savchuk, who from 2014 to October 2022 served as director of the Limited Liability Company SPK Agromax of the Soviet District, specializing in the cultivation of cereals, legumes and oilseeds. In October 2022, Russian Head of Crimea Sergey Aksyonov appointed Savchuk to the post of minister, but he resigned in January 2024. According to the Russian authorities, Savchuk allowed "incomplete cash disbursement" of Russian funds, which is why he resigned and was dismissed.

The Sviatoshynskyi District Court of Kyiv found Savchuk guilty of collaboration and sentenced him to 10 years with confiscation of all his property.

Earlier, law enforcement officers served a notice of suspicion of aiding the aggressor state to a resident of Skadovsk district, who, after the occupation of the left bank of Kherson region, voluntarily cooperated with the invaders and headed an illegally created agricultural enterprise. In August 2022, the man voluntarily took up the position of director of the occupation "state unitary enterprise Antonovskoye Experimental Farm". The invaders created it on the basis of the seized property complex and production facilities of the State Enterprise "State Farm of the Rice Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine". The main specialization of the pseudo-enterprise was the production of dairy and meat products of cattle, their processing and sale in the occupied territories.

Earlier, the SBU detained seven residents of Kherson region on the right bank of the Kherson River who collaborated with the Russian invaders during the occupation of the region and tried to avoid justice after the liberation of Kherson: one of them was going to flee abroad, while the others were going to "lie low."

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