Court chairman in Cherkasy Oblast considers Russian invasion a "liberation"

Ukrainian law enforcers have served a notice of suspicion on Svitlana Fedorets, Chairman of the Zvenyhorod District Court in Cherkasy Oblast, for justifying Russia's armed aggression against Ukraine.

Source: State Bureau of Investigation; Ukrainian Security Service; sources of Ukrainska Pravda in law enforcement agencies

Quote: "The judge has repeatedly justified the temporary occupation of part of Ukraine's territory during personal conversations with colleagues and friends after Russia's full-scale armed invasion.

She referred to the occupied territories of Ukraine as 'liberated', described the occupiers as 'ours' and recognised the Autonomous Republic of Crimea as part of Russia.

The official has repeatedly visited temporarily occupied Crimea, in particular, she even celebrated the coming of the 2023 year on the peninsula."

Details: The sources of the UP specified that the person in question was Svitlana Fedorets, Head of the Zvenyhorod District Court in Cherkasy Oblast.

The woman interpreted Russia's armed aggression against Ukraine as "a reasoned step taken due to the strategic importance of Crimea and accused the Ukrainian Armed Forces of unjustified aggression against civilian Ukrainians".

Discussing the Russian missile attacks on Ukrainian settlements, the judge viewed the Russian missiles hitting civilian buildings as Russia saving expensive precision missiles, which is why they hit civilians and claimed that, in particular, Mariupol was targeted by the Ukrainian military, not the Russians.

She claimed that Ukrainian snipers were shooting people, and the Ukrainian army used the population as a human shield, not letting them out of the city, throwing them out of their own apartments, and allegedly throwing grenades into basements for speaking Russian.

The official has denied Russia’s abducting and taking children from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, etc.

The judge is suspected of justifying the Russian armed aggression against Ukraine, which began in 2014, and of recognising the occupation of part of the territory of Ukraine as lawful, committed by an official (Article 436-2.3 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code).

The penalty stipulates imprisonment for up to eight years with confiscation of property.

The investigation revealed that the woman had previously been a judge of the Yakymivka District Court in Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Owing to the temporary occupation of this territory, in June 2022, she was seconded to Cherkasy Oblast, where she was first appointed a judge and then elected chairman of the district court.

Subsequently, the defendant planned to resign and move to Crimea, but at the same time wanted to receive a lifetime pension from the Ukrainian treasury.

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