The court banned the pro-Russian SPAS party in Ukraine

The Eighth Appeal Administrative Court of Lviv banned the activities of the political party "Social-Patriotic Assembly of Slavs" (SPAS) in Ukraine.

This was reported by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).

According to SBU, SPAS conducts information-subversive activities for the benefit of Russia. After the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022, party members "dispersed" in almost all the occupied territories of Ukraine.

Law enforcement officers claim that the head of SPAS Eduard Kovalenko is hiding from justice in the temporarily occupied Kherson region, where he is in direct contact with the Federal Security Service (FSB) of Russia. At the behest of the FSB, Kovalenko and his fellow party members are publicly speaking in support of an aggressive war against Ukraine.

In the occupied territories, SPAS members are agitating locals to support Russia and join the ranks of the occupying groups, SBU reported. They also speak to Russian propagandists allegedly on behalf of "average citizens" of Ukraine and justify the war crimes of the Russian Federation.

In September 2022, SBU informed Kovalenko in absentia about suspicion of treason. He and his accomplices are being prosecuted for crimes against Ukraine.

• The party "Social-Patriotic Assembly of Slavs" was created in 2006 by Eduard Kovalenko. SPAS opposed Ukraineʼs accession to NATO and the European Union, instead proposing to create a "union of free Slavic countries."
• In 2015, Kovalenko tried to disrupt the mobilization in Genichesk, shouting at a rally that "there is a fratricidal war going on, and we donʼt want our children and parents to take part in it." In May 2017, Kovalenko was sentenced to five years in prison for obstructing the activities of the Armed Forces during a special period and seizing administrative buildings. However, Kovalenko spent only half of his term in prison — on December 29, 2019, he was exchanged for captured Ukrainians, and he went to occupied Luhansk.