Prosecutors of the Odesa Regional Prosecutor's Office proved the guilt of a former employee of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in the Donetsk region, who switched sides and committed a war crime during the occupation of the Kherson region. The court sentenced him to 15 years of imprisonment for treason and violation of the laws and customs of war (Part 2 of Article 111, Part 2 of Article 28, Part 1 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation into the territory of Ukraine, a former militiaman from Mariupol, who left law enforcement in 2014, voluntarily switched sides and joined the military unit of the Russian Armed Forces. He received the call sign "Greek" and held the position of the so-called "deputy commandant - head of the garrison" of the occupying forces in the town of Lazurne in the Skadovsk district.

The area of responsibility of the pseudo-commandant's office included the settlements of Lazurne, Prymorske, Kruhloozirka, Zalizny Port, as well as part of the Black Sea Biosphere Reserve.

The convicted actively participated in coercing local authorities to cooperate with the occupying administration. Together with representatives of the armed forces and law enforcement agencies of the Russian Federation, he carried out detentions, torture, and intimidation of residents of the temporarily occupied territory.

In April 2022, he, along with Russian soldiers, detained the head of one of the village councils in the Skadovsk district and a local entrepreneur. The men were held for a long time in the basement of a boarding house, where they were systematically beaten, threatened with execution, and shots were fired over their heads, simulating execution. They were demanded to provide information about pro-Ukrainian activists and local residents who might cooperate and provide information to the SBU officers.

The special pre-trial investigation in the criminal proceedings was conducted by investigators of the SBU in the Odesa region.