The SSU has collected evidence that another 3 collaborators voluntarily assist the enemy. These ‘officials’ have formed the ‘core’ of the occupation administration in the temporarily occupied Starobilsk district, Luhansk region.

They include:

• ‘acting head of the occupation administration’,
• ‘acting deputy head’,
• ‘adviser to the head of the LNR Starobilsk district administration’.

These former members of the party of regions have already worked in the same team until 2014 and held similar positions in Starobilsk district state administration.

After russia’s full-scale invasion, the officials looked forward to the occupation of the district. They perceived this as an opportunity for ‘revenge’ and at their own initiative decided to cooperate with the enemy.

Having headed the occupation administration, the ‘officials’ began intensive ‘team’ work, which includes:

• propaganda campaigns and public ceremonies on the occasion of ‘red-letter days’ in the russian calendar;
• rallies in support of russia’s invasion;
• meetings on the issues of the occupation administration, e.g. expansion of propaganda among local population.

Information about these events is actively picked up and disseminated by russian-controlled media and Internet resources, which create and spread anti-Ukrainian propaganda content.

The collaborators willingly give interviews to russian media, in which they repeat well-known russian narratives about:

• ‘liberation’ of local population by the ‘LNR army’ from the ‘suffering’ that Ukraine inflicted on them;
• ‘revival of russian culture’ in Starobilsk district;
• ‘need to support the ‘LNR’s people’s militia’ as a guarantor of these ‘transformations’.

The three offenders have been notified of suspicion of crimes under the Articles of the CCU:

• 28.3 and 111-1.6 (information activity in cooperation with the aggressor state and its occupation administration aimed at supporting the aggressor state, its occupation administration or armed formations, committed by an organized group);
• 111-1.5 (voluntarily assuming a position related to organizational-administrative or administrative-economic functions in illegal authorities established in the temporarily occupied territory, including in occupation administrations).

The collaborators have been declared wanted.

The SSU warns: anyone who defects to the enemy will be held to account. Collaboration with the enemy is punishable by 10 years in prison.

The SSU Office in Donetsk and Luhansk regions carried out the investigation under the procedural supervision of Luhansk Region Prosecutor’s Office.