Ukrainian law enforcement officers informed about the suspicion of 29 members of a criminal organization, which included former police officers.
This was reported in the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine.
They were charged with leading a structural part of a criminal organization and participating in it, encroachment on the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine, collaborative activities, kidnapping and torturing people, as well as theft of citizensʼ property (Article 255, Article 110, Article 111-1, Article 146, Article 127, Article 186 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
According to the investigation, after Russiaʼs full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the occupation of part of the Kherson region, citizens of Ukraine and the Russian Federation created a criminal group as part of the illegal law enforcement agency "Oleshkivsky district police department of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Kherson region".
It was managed by a citizen of Ukraine who previously worked in the police bodies of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the Odesa region.
Citizens of Ukraine — current and former employees of territorial units of the National Police of Ukraine, as well as local residents of Oleshky and Crimea with pro-Russian views — were involved in the criminal organization. They were appointed to relevant pseudo-positions in the so-called "Oleshkivsky district police department of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Kherson region" and assigned special ranks.
They carried out the criminal tasks of the leadership of the Russian Federation: they helped the occupiers hold an illegal referendum; found and detained Ukrainians who did not support Russia and could potentially undermine the work of the occupation authorities. The suspects also suppressed pro-Ukrainian rallies.
The suspects kidnapped local residents who support Ukraine, law enforcement officers, tortured them, tortured them, beat them, threatened to kill and rape their relatives. For a long time, they kept the victims in inhumane conditions in the basements of the captured police station in the city of Oleshky.
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