The Security Service of Ukraine on Thursday has convicted the head of the occupation administration of the Russia “Yevhen Balytskyi” in the temporary captured region of the Zaporizhzia. The following announcement has been made by the Security Service of Ukraine via their official social media handle.
According to the details shared by the Ukrainian special service, the court sentenced him to 15 years in prison with confiscation of property.
It has been revealed that former People’s Deputy from the banned party “Opposition Bloc” Balytsky was one of the first to publicly support the Russian occupiers at the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation.
After that, the invaders appointed him Gauleiter in the captured territory of the southern region.
In order to force the employees of the local government to recognize the “authorities” of the collaborator, the Russian troops threatened people with repression and physical violence. Dissenters were imprisoned in Russian torture camps, where the victims were subjected to brutal torture.
After being appointed to the “post”, Balytskyi immediately began to implement Moscow’s instructions regarding the spread of the Kremlin regime and the suppression of the resistance movement in the region.
According to the investigation, the collaborator was engaged in the organization of a local pseudo-referendum on the “accession” of the Zaporizhzhia region to Russia.
Under his leadership, illegal “electoral committees” were created, in which the results of “voting” were falsified in favor of the aggressor country.
After the fake plebiscite, Balytsky appealed to the President of the Russian Federation with a request to “recognize” the region as a new subject of the Russian Federation.
Following which, on September 30, 2022, at a “solemn” event in the Kremlin, he signed an illegal “agreement on the entry” of the Zaporizhzhia region into Russia.
Based on the collected evidence, the court found Gauleiter guilty under two articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine:
▪️ Part 2 Art. 28, Part 5 of Art. 111-1 (participation in the organization and holding of illegal referendums in the temporarily occupied territory, committed by a group of persons following a prior conspiracy);
▪️ Part 2 Art. 110 (deliberate actions committed with the purpose of changing the boundaries of the territory or the state border of Ukraine in violation of the order established by the Constitution of Ukraine, by a group of persons in a prior conspiracy).
The investigation was conducted by SBU employees in the Zaporizhzhia region under the procedural guidance of the regional prosecutor’s office.