Cherkasy: SSU exposes former communists who wrote thank-you letters to putin and called to seize whole Ukraine
The Security Service of Ukraine has prevented new attempts of russian intelligence services to undermine the socio-political situation in Ukraine’s central regions.
As a result of a complex investigation, a group of former communists was dismantled in Cherkasy.
The cell’s subversive activities were remotely coordinated by former member of parliament and communist Petro Symonenko, who fled to russia at the beginning of the full-scale war, accompanied by the russian special forces.
On russia’s orders, he formed an underground group, which included a former communist MP, the former head of the city’s organization of the communist party, its secretary and an ideological functionary.
They publicly justified russia’s armed aggression and ruscist war crimes, including the missile attack on the children’s hospital Okhmatdyt and the massacres in Bucha.
It has been documented how the members of the cell spread enemy narratives in conversations with local population and spoke in support of the occupiers.
On behalf of the group, they prepared letters to putin praising the kremlin leader and calling for the restoration of the former ussr.
The perpetrators secretly used the former office premises of the banned communist party to hold meetings.
During the searches of the suspects’ homes in Cherkasy and Kyiv, SSU investigators found banned symbols, as well as computer equipment and mobile phones with evidence of the crimes.
The SSU has served all four individuals notices of suspicion under Article 436-2.1, 436-2.2, 436-2.3 of the CCU (justification, recognition as legitimate, denial of russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine, glorification of its participants, committed by an organized group).
The suspects face up to 8 years in prison with confiscation of property.
The operation was carried out by the SSU Office in Cherkasy region under the procedural supervision of the regional Prosecutor’s Office.
In the spring of 2023, the SSU carried out a large-scale special operation exposing underground cells of the ‘bolshevik communist party’ in seven other regions of Ukraine.
