The SSU has collected evidence against another collaborator who worked for the FSB and the russian PMC Wagner.

The SSU detained the offender in September 2022 in the course of stabilization efforts in the liberated Vovchansk, Kharkiv oblast.

Following an investigation by the SSU, the court sentenced him to 15 years in prison.

The convict is a 45-year-old local criminal known under the nickname ‘Chyzh’.

After Vovchansk was captured, the man voluntarily cooperated with an FSB officer and a commander of a Wagner PMC unit. Each of them gave him assignments.

Following the FSB’s instructions, the traitor was to head Vovchansk district.

To do this, ‘Chyzh’ organized an illegal collection of signatures of local population to ‘support’ the then-mayor’s resignation. The event was disguised as distribution of russia’s humanitarian aid.

Later, the traitor raised the aggressor’s flag on a flagpole in the city centre.

To support the aggressor, he covered such propaganda activities on his Telegram channel and commented on them live on pro-kremlin TV channels.

‘Chyzh’ also participated in the abduction of representatives of Vovchansk territorial community.

The investigation established that using his ‘tips’ in March 2022 the ruscists had broken into the house of a local council member and abducted him.

On the instructions of a PMC Wagner mercenary, the enemy accomplice extorted money from local farmers for ‘land use’.

He demanded up to USD 50 for a hectare. Of this amount, USD 20 was for the right to sow and cultivate land, and USD 30 was for the right to harvest. In case farmers refused, the collaborator threatened not only to block economic activity, but also to kill them.

In this way, during March ‘Chyzh’ extorted almost UAH 10 mln from the farmers and handed the money over to russians.

In addition, he provided the ruscists with fuel and food, and demanded that teachers at a local school teach in russian and remove lessons on the Anti-Terrorist Operation from the curriculum.

Based on the evidence collected, the court found the accused guilty of high treason committed under martial law (Article 111.2 of the CCU).

The SSU Kharkiv Office carried out the operational and investigative activities jointly with the National Police under the procedural supervision of the regional Prosecutor’s Office.