Oleg Baturin

Из-за дефицита местных коллаборантов назначать на руководящие должности в оккупационных администрациях Херсонщины в очередной раз приходится заезжих гастарбайтеров из России. Очередной новой заместительницей у гауляйтера Каховки Павла Филипчука стала 42-летняя россиянка Наталья Горковец, работавшая до этого чиновницей одного из сельских поселений Краснодарского края.

Last year heads of local military administrations (hereinafter referred to as MA) of Kherson region have received average monthly salaries from 16 to almost 110 thousand UAH. The monthly average for their majority has been between 70 and 90 thousand UAH. 

The Center for Journalist Investigations collected this information from public asset declarations published by the Register of e-declarations of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) and answers from local military administrations whose heads closed an access to their declarations.  

Two heads of MAs – Tavrychanska MA and Khakhovka City MA – refused to provide information about their salaried paid by Ukrainian taxpayers. Bilozerka Village MA ignored our request. 

Our previous material explained why some heads of local military administrations of Kherson region closed access to their asset declarations, without legitimate grounds. Now we look at their salaries and reasons some officials use to hide them from the public. 

Heads of 15 local military administrations in Kherson region closed an access to their asset declarations for 2024 and previous years. It is almost one third of people within this group of public officials.

Earlier the Center for Journalist Investigations (CJI) analyzed why deputies of Kherson Oblast Council closed an access to their declarations. Now we look at respective behavior of heads of military administrations in the region, created after full scale Russian invasion into Ukraine. But let us first examine legislative grounds and procedure for closing such an access.

Ludmila Pestova, resident of Nova Kakhovka, visited her son Andrii in the morning of November 4, 2022. He has lived for years in Dnipryany psychoneurological boarding school, specialized residential facility for long term care and support for adults with serious mental and neurological disorders.

When she came back home, she noticed a column of buses ahead of her. Later she was told that one of them carried her son Andrii to Crimea and then to Russia. Ludmila had to search her son and persuade Russian occupants that he has been her son.

On that November day, armed Russian occupants forcibly took away 96 residents of the boarding school. They did not warn their parents or legitimate guardians. One resident was frightened and tried to hide in the nearby building. Russian occupants caught him and made an unknown injection, «to calm him down». Finally, Russians deported remaining residents of the boarding school – bedridden patients, who could not move without assistance.

«Boys did not want to go and did not understand what was going on. Russians behaved like Gestapo people from movies about Nazists. They took and dragged patients to buses. Patients cried and did not want to go. Their weeping broke my heart», as told witnesses of those events.

The Center for Journalist Investigations interviewed relatives of forcibly deported people with serious mental disorders and witnesses of this war crime. For security reasons, we do not quote some real names whereas other names are changed (they are marked with *).

Forty five Ukrainian objects and assets in Kherson region were seized and illegally transferred to Russian companies and legal entities, illegally registered on temporary occupied territories of Ukraine. It is confirmed by documents of Russian occupation administration in Kherson region, hacked and delivered to the Center of Journalist Investigations by Ukrainian community KibOrg.

Russian occupation prosecutors have submitted a wave of lawsuits to Russian “arbitration court of Kherson oblast”. They require recognizing as void contracts which transferred assets of Ukrainian legal entities under management of companies owned or controlled by Russian “governor” Volodymyr Saldo and his friends. They also require reimbursing multi-million losses. However, prosecutors would like to transfer these assets to the state ownership of the Russian Federation, not to their legitimate Ukrainian owners. Thus, they do not restore justice and do not stop war crimes. 

The Center of Journalist Investigations (the CJI) studied documents, considered by “arbitration court”, and uncovered schemes Russian occupants and their collaborators used to expropriate assets of Ukrainian citizens and foreigners. 

After orders of senior public officials of Kherson region, Ukrainian authorities started depriving public employees on temporary occupied territories of their salaries. In some communities, it leads to a wave of dismissals. At the same time, representatives of Ukrainian authorities deny that they issued written or oral orders to suspend labor contracts with employees on occupied territories. They accuse their direct employers.

The Center of Journalist Investigations (the CJI) uncovered what was going on and what outcomes would follow.

After appointment of Vitalii Gura as the new «head» of Russian occupation administration of Nova Kakhovka, Marjan Zholubak and Maksym Novak were appointed as his deputies. Violetta Shlyazhko was selected as an advisor of new «head». The Center of Journalist Investigations identified these people and their stories of betrayal.

Myrne village community of Skadovsk raion has been occupied during the first hours of the Russian full scale invasion into Ukraine. Two key checkpoints «Kalanchak» and «Chaplynka» at the border of the Crimean peninsula are located here. Residents of the community saw by their own eyes how Russian troops invaded Ukraine from Crimea on February 24, 2022.

There was almost no news about situation on the remote territory of Myrne and neighboring villages. There was no information about local collaborators. The Center for Journalist Investigations contacted local residents and uncovered names of traitors.

After Russian occupants destroyed the Kakhovka hydroelectric station, they delivered 6 liter bottles of mineral water «Kakhovka» to residents of Ivanivka community in Genichesk raion, «First of all, we sent them to social institutions and low income families», as proudly reported Igor Kastukevich, the deputy of the Russian State Duma.