The Pechersk District Prosecutorʼs Office of Kyiv informed Yevhenia Bilchenko, a former teacher of the Mykhailo Drahomanov National Pedagogical University, of suspicion of treason and recruitment of correctional officers. Two of her accomplices were also informed about the suspicion.
This was reported in the Prosecutor Generalʼs Office.
According to the investigation, since February 2022, Bilchenko, who is in the territory of the Russian Federation, created and administered a number of Telegram groups at the behest of Russian curators. In these groups, the woman recruited Ukrainians in order to get information from them about the location and movement of the Armed Forces and Territorial Defense fighters in Kyiv and the Kyivskyi region.
According to preliminary data, Bilchenko recruited more than 10 people. From February 24, 2022, they went around certain areas in Kyiv and the Kyiv region and took pictures of places of deployment and movement of Ukrainian servicemen. These data were passed on to Russian curators.
In addition, on her page on the Russian social network “VKontakte” and on “YouTube”, the teacher shared videos and posts that justified Russiaʼs war against Ukraine and called for the overthrow of the constitutional system and the seizure of power in Ukraine.
Yevhenia Bilchenko is accused of actions aimed at violent change or overthrow of the constitutional order, treason committed under martial law, as well as justifying, recognizing as legitimate, denying the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine (Part 3 of Article 436-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
One of the members of her group also received suspicion for this article. In addition, an indictment against another of its agents has already been submitted to the court for treason and illegal handling of weapons, ammunition or explosives (Part 2 of Article 111 and Part 1 of Article 263 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
- In January 2021, Bilchenko got into a scandal after she called Ukraine a totalitarian state and a "cancerous American colony" in which "neo-Nazism flourishes" and the law on the Ukrainian language in the service sector is "ordinary fascism." In addition, Bilchenko appeared on the "DPR" channels and went to creative evenings in Moscow and St. Petersburg. The professorʼs actions provoked a flurry of criticism and discontent in social networks and at the university itself. Some students supported the teacher, but the majority demanded that Bilchenko be fired.
- In July 2021, the Mykhailo Drahomanov National Pedagogical University dismissed the teacher.