Based on evidence collected by the Security Service, nine more collaborators who organized russia’s sham referendum during the occupation of Kherson have been sentenced to up to 10 years in prison with confiscation of property.

Eight of them received real prison terms. One perpetrator was convicted in absentia as she is hiding from justice on the left bank of the southern oblast.

According to the investigation, the group was organized by a resident of Beryslav district who collaborated with the aggressor after the community was captured and headed the occupation ‘election commission No. 826’.

She recruited her ‘like-minded’ eight fellow villagers to the commission. During the fake plebiscite, they walked around local households and urged the residents to support the ‘annexation’ of Kherson oblast to russia.

The collaborators handed out ‘ballots’ to people, urging them to vote in favour of the aggressor state.

After the de-occupation of the region, the perpetrators tried to lay low to evade justice, while their leader fled with the occupiers to the left bank of the region.

The SSU Counterintelligence and investigators documented their crimes and detained eight of them in February 2024 in the liberated region.

The court has found all nine members of the occupation ‘election commission’ guilty under Article 111-1.5 of the CCU (collaboration, participation in the organization and conduct of illegal referendums in the temporarily occupied territory).

Efforts are underway to bring their accomplice to justice.

The investigation was carried out by the SSU Offices in Ivano-Frankivsk and Kherson regions under the procedural supervision of Ivano-Frankivsk Region Prosecutor’s Office.