The “governor” of the Zaporizhzhia region Yevhen Balytskyi was sentenced to 15 years in prison with confiscation of property

The head of the occupation administration of the Zaporizhzhia region Yevhen Balytskyi was sentenced to 15 years in prison with confiscation of property.

This was reported by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) on June 29.

Yevhen Balytskyi is a former MP from the banned party "Opposition Bloc". At the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, he was one of the first to publicly support the Russian invaders. After that, the invaders appointed him "governor" of the captured part of the Zaporizhzhia region.

In order to force local authorities to recognize Balytskyiʼs "authorities", the Russian occupiers threatened repression and physical violence. Dissenters were sent to torture chambers.

Balytskyi was also involved in the organization of a "referendum" on the "accession" of the Zaporizhzhia region to Russia. Under his leadership, illegal "electoral committees" were created, in which voting results were falsified. After that, Balytskyi appealed to Putin to recognize the region as a new subject of the Russian Federation. Then, on September 30, 2022, in the Kremlin, he signed the "agreement on the entry" of the Zaporizhzhia region into Russia.

Yevhen Balytskyi is currently in the occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region.