Following evidence collected by the SSU and the Prosecutor's Office, pro-kremlin propagandist Mykhailo Shpir has been sentenced in absentia to 15 years of imprisonment, with confiscation of property.

According to the case files, even before the start of russia's full-scale invasion, the convict regularly appeared as a political commentator on Medvedchuk's television channels, where he disseminated kremlin propaganda and narratives.

In 2020, Shpir fled to moscow and, with the outbreak of full-scale war, became one of the kremlin’s leading mouthpieces, publicly supporting putin’s armed aggression against Ukraine.

Following the capture of Kherson, the occupiers appointed him ‘deputy minister of digital development and mass communications’ in the local occupation administration.

In this ‘position’, Mykhailo Shpir imposed an enemy regime, spreaded their propaganda, and, during the russian forces retreat from the right bank of Kherson, authorised the demolition of telecommunications masts by russian troops. In this way, he wanted to leave the local population without broadcasting and communications.

For his systematic work in the interests of the russia in the summer of 2023, he was awarded the medal ‘participant of a special military operation’ by rashists.

Based on evidence provided by investigators from the SSU the court found the defendant guilty under five articles of the CCU:

• Article 111.2 (treason committed under martial law);
• Article 111-1.5 (collaboration);
• Article 345.1(threatening a law enforcement officer);
• Article 436 (propaganda for war);
• Articles 436-2.2 and 3 (justifying, recognising as lawful, or denying the russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine, and glorifying its participants).

Earlier, in June 2023, Shpir had already been sentenced in absentia to 10 years of  imprisonment with confiscation of property for undermining Ukraine’s territorial integrity. The court has now changed this sentence to 15 years of imprisonment, which the traitor will serve from the date of his arrest.

The investigation was carried out by the SSU officers in the Ivano-Frankivsk region under the procedural supervision of the regional Prosecutor’s Office.