The security service collected evidence of treason on the part of pro-Kremlin propagandist Mykhailo Shpir, who is hiding in the temporarily occupied territory of the Kherson region. The extra was a frequent guest on Medvedchuk TV channels, and in 2020 he left for Moscow.
According to SBU materials, in June 2023, Shpir already received 10 years in prison in absentia with confiscation of property. But the collected evidence of new crimes provides for a more severe punishment.
SBU cyber specialists discovered evidence of his cooperation with Russian special services.
At the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, Shpir became one of the main mouthpieces of the Kremlin and publicly supported Putin. And after the capture of Kherson, he was appointed the so-called deputy minister of digital development and mass communications in the local occupation administration.
It was established that he was the one who authorized the detonation of the tower of the Ukrainian mobile communications and broadcasting operators when the Russians were fleeing from the right bank.
Among other things, Shpir publicly called on the Russian General Staff to adjust missile strikes on Ukraineʼs energy facilities.
For this, the command of the Russian troops in the summer of 2023 awarded its henchman with the medal "participant of a special military operation."
So far, investigators of the Security Service have notified Shpir of suspicion under four articles:
- Part 2 of Art. 111 (treason committed under martial law);
- Part 5 of Art. 111-1 (collaborative activity);
- Art. 436 (war propaganda);
- h. 2, part 3 of Art. 436-2 (justification, recognition as legitimate, denial of armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, glorification of its participants).
Currently, the suspect is hiding from justice on the territory of the Russian Federation and the temporarily occupied part of Ukraine.