KIEV, September 28. /TASS/. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has accused 16 individuals of collaborating to organize the referendums in the DPR, the LPR, the Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions on joining Russia.
The list includes DPR head Denis Pushilin, head of the Zaporozhye Region’s military-civilian administration, Yevgeny Balitsky, head of the Kherson Region’s military-civilian administration, Vladimir Saldo and his deputy Kirill Stremousov.
"The SBU has brought charges against 16 more organizers [of the referendums]," the statement on the agency’s Telegram channel reads. It is specified that investigators had brought charges against the organizers on grounds of "collaborative activities" under Ukraine’s Criminal Code.
Charges were also brought against Chairman of the DPR People’s Council Vladimir Bidevka, Melitopol Mayor Galina Danilchenko, head of the military-civilian administration of Berdyansk and the Berdyansk Region, Alexander Saulenko, head of the Melitopol Region’s military-civilian administration, Andrey Siguta and Akimovka head, Maxim Zubarev.
Members of election commissions are also being looked into, including secretary of the DPR CEC Yelena Radomskaya, chairpersons of the Zaporozhye and Kherson Region’s election commissions, Galina Katyushchenko and Marina Zakharova, as well as the heads of the elections commissions of the Genichesky, Berislavsky, Kakhovsky and Skadovsky districts of the Kherson Region.
On Wednesday, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry announced that government agencies had already begun searching for those Ukrainians who were involved in organizing the referendums on the territories not controlled by Kiev. Earlier, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Reintegration of Uncontrolled Territories, Irina Vereshchuk, specified that the organizers were facing from five to ten years imprisonment and the confiscation of property.
From September 23-27, the DPR, the LPR, the Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions held referendums on joining Russia. The majority of residents in these regions voted in favor of this decision.