You're reading: SBU detains ex-deputy minister of self-proclaimed ‘Council of Ministers’ of occupied Crimea

Counterintelligence officers of the Security Service of Ukraine have detained the former official of the self-proclaimed “Council of Ministers” of the occupation authorities of the annexed Crimea at the Kalanchak border crossing point.

The former Ukrainian official was deputy to the so-called minister of transport of Crimea from April 2015 until May 2016, the SBU press center reported. After his release from the office, he continued anti-Ukrainian activities as part of a working group on the creation of the state program of the occupation Russian government, dubbed “Patriotic (military-patriotic) education of Russian citizens in the Republic of Crimea.”

Until recently, he was secretary of the regional branch of the All-Russian Public-State Organization “Voluntary Society for the Army, Aviation and Fleet of Russia”, whose activities are aimed at violating the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.

SBU operatives received information that the man planned to leave Crimea for Kherson region to attend to personal issues, and detained him during the crossing of the administrative border. Investigators of the Main Directorate of the SBU in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea have launched criminal proceedings under part 1 of Article 111 (high treason) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, investigative and operational actions are being conducted.