What is the crime situation in the occupied territories of southern Ukraine? Who commits crimes against the local population and what kind of crimes? Who serves in the occupation police and do people turn to them for help? Read more about all this in the piece of the Radio Liberty project ‘News of Pryazovia’.
Serhiy Khlan, a member of the Kherson Regional Council, told Novyny Pryazovia that the occupation authorities have created their own pseudo-police in the occupied territory of the region. Among other things, he says, it is also engaged in the redistribution of property of entrepreneurs who refused to cooperate with the occupiers, and this process is closely monitored by the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB).
Serhiy Khlan
‘If we are talking about domestic crime, it is controlled by the occupation police. And yet, the financial condition of people in the occupied territories today is quite poor. That is why there are no reports of robberies there. Because there is no one to rob anymore. The only thing that is attractive there today is the robbery of property left behind by people who have left for the Ukrainian government-controlled territory or other countries. The property of enterprises that are not re-registered under Russian law is a tasty morsel that collaborators working in the occupation authorities and, accordingly, all other structures are chasing. But Mr Saldo (appointed by the Kremlin to manage the seized part of Kherson region – ed.) and his team are trying to control all this,’ Khlan says.
The Malynovskyi District Court of Odesa found Volodymyr Saldo guilty of high treason under martial law, the court’s press service reported. Saldo was sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison with confiscation of property.
According to him, local entrepreneurs usually do not turn to the so-called police, as they understand that the occupation structures are interconnected.
‘Entrepreneurs are afraid to turn to anyone, and they were afraid to turn to the occupation police, among other things. Because at the beginning, they were in a certain connection. But when they turned to the FSB, there were even cases when they brought the jewelry back. They found the criminals and brought the jewelry back to the owners. In other words, the FSB are trying to play the good cop,’ the MP said.
The heyday of crime in Kherson region was observed mainly at the beginning of the occupation. Now, the Russian military sometimes resort to domestic thefts, but they are afraid of publicity, Khlan noted. Now, according to him, the FSB is trying to create a picture of restoring order.
Given the ongoing military action and Russia’s occupation of parts of Ukraine’s southern territories, the editorial team cannot receive official confirmation of some of the allegations or independently verify them.
Andrii Solopov, head of the Pryazovske village council in Melitopol district, Zaporizhzhia region, said that the crime situation in the community had always been in check before the full-scale invasion. Today, the biggest threat to local residents is posed by the occupation administration and people loyal to them. They feel impunity.
‘Using their impunity, with the support of the occupation police, they are taking away houses, property, and land of the citizens of the community who have left. The occupation police are harassing people who have a pro-Ukrainian position. Now I know that they are actively calling and visiting people who did not participate in the pseudo-elections, finding out the reasons, and frightening them with the consequences.
As for the protection of any rights or freedoms of citizens, the occupation police, of course, sets priorities. The most important thing for them is to support the regime, and as for the protection of any property rights or the protection of citizens‘ safety, it is not even a second priority for them,’ he said.
Some local residents joined the occupation police, says the head of the community. After the establishment of the occupation regime, these people actively expanded the police force.
‘They hired people even with a criminal record, without education. The most important criterion is willingness to participate in searches, torture, and all kinds of harassment of our citizens. And, accordingly, these people became first in line for further mobilisation into the so-called ‘volunteer battalions’ that are being formed in the occupation,’ he said.
When a local resident is abducted, relatives can turn to the occupation police, but their statements are not registered, Solopov said, because these pseudo-police bodies know who is doing it.
‘You understand that no one will accept applications for themselves. They set priorities. The most important thing for them is not the protection of our citizens. They ‘cover up’, they know about all these cases. Because now not only law-abiding citizens are afraid, but also some representatives of the criminal world. That is, if you don’t have permission from the police, the FSB or some other unit, no one can do anything there. Everything that happens there is 100 per cent known to the occupation police,’ he says.
All the judges who worked in the Pryazovia community have left the occupied territory, the head added, and the occupation court has not yet been formed.
The Russian occupation authorities in the occupied part of Donetsk region have announced a review of criminal cases that were considered by Ukrainian courts, according to the Mariupol-based media “0629”. According to journalists, since the beginning of the occupation, people who had previously been accused of murder and theft have been released from prison in the city, and these were not isolated cases.
First, the occupation authorities promise to review the so-called ‘political cases’. They call them cases of high treason, collaboration, organisation of illegal referendums in the Donetsk region.
Earlier, 0629 also wrote that the criminal situation in occupied Mariupol had deteriorated. Residents of the city reported that they try not to leave their homes in the evenings. Shots can be heard from time to time in all districts of Mariupol. At the same time, the occupation police are said to be almost unresponsive to calls.
Mariupol residents also tell journalists that there are frequent fights between locals and visitors in the city. The Russian military can threaten with weapons in any situation. ‘Whoever has the gun is the one who’s right,’ say Mariupol residents.
Anna Romanenko, editor-in-chief of 0629, told Novyny Pryazovia that the occupation authorities have failed to create fully-fledged law enforcement agencies in Mariupol. The city is in a state of lawlessness and crime is rampant, she said.
‘They did not bring their own people there and used only the forces of collaborators, and the forces of collaborators are very limited. Together with the former head of the regional police, Vyacheslav Abroskin, we checked the lists that were circulating on the Internet and in networks at the beginning of the occupation, giving lists of people who had betrayed us. There are about 200 former law enforcement officers who have remained in Mariupol and are working. But this is a far from sufficient,’ she said.
According to the journalist, there is no one to patrol the streets, and the crimes that are being committed are not being investigated.
‘These people, especially the military, they just drive on the sidewalks. No one tells them anything. They see that people are being run over on the roads almost every day. Just yesterday we reported that a 17-year-old girl was crushed by a KamAZ (military truck). She died in hospital. And her mother wrote to us that no one is investigating this case because the truck was a military one,’ Romanenko said.
Both the Russian military and ‘migrant workers’ who came from Russia commit crimes in Mariupol. There have been cases where they have robbed unoccupied apartments, the journalist says. In addition, she points out that it has become especially dangerous for women to stay in Mariupol, and some are even leaving because of harassment.
‘We know very little. Because very few women report officially. But I talked to one woman who returned to live with her daughter in the occupied city. She could not stay there for long and went back to her relatives abroad. Because these migrant workers started harassing her daughter. And this harassment reached the point where she simply realised that she would not be able to protect her teenage daughter. She packed her things and left Mariupol,’ Romanenko said.
Vana stressed that the actual crime rate in Mariupol is unknown. There are calls on social media from male citizens to unite to protect their women and their way of life. This shows that the crime situation is really very difficult, the journalist said. She also added that some Mariupol residents are trying to protect themselves on their own.
‘One man and his family went to the territory of the Russian Federation, and they had a private house in Mariupol. When they returned there, they saw their house just bare walls, no furniture, no appliances, no laminate flooring, nothing. They went to the neighbours’ houses, to look for their belongings. And in one house they saw their things, it was their neighbour. They began to demand that they get their things back. This neighbour came out with a gun and said: ‘If you don’t leave my yard right now, I’m going to kill you’. So these showdowns continue, people live as if it were the last day,’ she said.
Vira Yastrebova, director of the Eastern Human Rights Group, told Novyny Pryazovia that there is no legal framework in the territories of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, which have been occupied since 2014. Although formally, Russian law seems to be in force there. The main task of the pseudo-police structures is to ensure the activities of the occupation regime.
‘Repressions against the local population are carried out regularly by all occupation units, including the Rosgvardiya, the FSB and the so-called police. Local people are detained and their documents are checked. Those who have not issued Russian passports face more questions than others, so to speak. And in fact, people have no way to defend themselves. This is the political police of the occupiers. Their goal is to identify pro-Ukrainian people and submit so-called reports about their own allegedly high-quality work,’ Yastrebova says.
According to the human rights activist, there are still collaborators in the territories occupied since 2014, but not in key positions. However, in the territories occupied since 2022, the vast majority of all staff positions are held by Russian citizens who have had nothing to do with these areas. This suggests that the occupiers have no trust in traitors, she said.
The number of criminal offences in the region is increasing, the human rights activist says.
‘These include murders and rapes. For example, in the city of Antratsyt, Luhansk region, a former member of an illegal armed group, a ‘Wagnerian’, escaped and deserted, and raped and killed a girl in the city. Given that there are a lot of deserters in the occupation army, after they flee the front, they look for money and pleasure at the expense of civilians. People have no protection against them. Because the police of the occupation regime are determined to take other measures,’ Yastrebova said.
The Russian occupation forces are trying to recruit prisoners in the occupied territories of eastern Ukraine who were convicted under Ukrainian law before the 2014 occupation, the National Resistance Centre reported on 30 October.
It noted that prisoners are recruited into the ranks of the Russian army by manipulating feelings of resentment towards Ukrainian law enforcement agencies. In case of refusal to serve, prisoners are threatened with worse treatment by prison administrations.
Human rights activist Yastrebova said that the recruitment of Ukrainian prisoners into the Russian Armed Forces is ongoing.
‘It was previously known that the occupiers announced that they would repeal the sentences passed by the courts under Ukrainian law. That is, before the occupation began. And the preference for cancelling such sentences was given to those convicts who received sentences for crimes against the foundations of national security. That was the preference for this category.
Now we can say that in fact these former prisoners are being recruited to participate in the occupation army. And we understand that those who refuse to go to war receive threats. Therefore, this is not a voluntary choice, it is a strategy of the occupier to fill the number of its occupation troops, including at the expense of the local population who sympathised with them and received sentences for this, who committed crimes and were convicted under the laws of Ukraine,’ she said.
Original Source: https://www.radiosvoboda.org/a/novyny-pryazovya-kryminalna-sytuatsiya-v-okupatsiyi/32676260.html
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