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.
Disgraced Vodka and Russian dead «governor»
«The war started on the 24th of February. Next day Vitali Nikolaev already collaborated with Russian occupants», as say residents of Myrne village.
Nikolaev Vitalii Viktorovych, born on July 31, 1962, has been the Deputy of Myrne Village Head on cooperation with governmental bodies on the day of the Russian invasion. He has headed JSC «Kalanchak Bread Factory» located in Myrne village from 2017 till 2019.
Vitalii Nikolaev at the celebration of International Women’s Day. Photo from social media
As local residents report, Vitalii Nikolaev has been among key traitors on the territory of Myrne and Kalanchak communities. Russian occupants «combined them» in so-called «Kalanchak municipal district». Another traitor has been Oleg Vodka [it is real surname], former First Deputy of the Head of Kalanchak community.
«Russians did not understand at all how Ukrainian administrative territorial system was built, how Ukrainian local self-government bodies worked. Nikolaev and Vodka helped them to figure out how to work in our communities. Nikolaev and other traitors have served Russian occupants and simultaneously received Ukrainian salaries until June 2022 when the State Treasury of Ukraine stopped paying them salaries», as say sources of the CJI in these communities.
Vitalii Nikolaev suddenly died at the beginning of November 2022. Oleg Vodka was served with the suspicion in the state treason by the State Security Service of Ukraine February 2023.
Russian «governor» of Kalanchak Pyotr Mustiyanovych (left), his former deputy Oleg Vodka (right) and two collaborators from Vadymska school of the Kalanchak community. Photo from social media
However, the work of Oleg Vodka for Russian occupants was not successful. Driving his car, drunken Vodka hit the car with Russian soldiers in the middle of May 2023. The accident and its outcomes have been very serious as wounded Russian soldiers were brought by helicopters to the Crimean hospital, and one of them died. Vodka has been beaten by Russians and imprisoned. Russian «governor» Pyotr Mustiyanovych dismissed him from the position of his deputy. Oleg Vodka has been consequently released and has wandered around Kalanchak in search of other job for several weeks. Reportedly, he was employed as the clerk in the occupation department of social security. If Russians will not imprison him for killing their soldier, then, he is likely to work there.
Photo from the author’s archives
Traitor from Kozatske and «Russian governor-divorcee»
After Ukrainian troops liberated the Right Bank of Dnipro in Kherson region, a dozens of families of local collaborators fled to Myrne and neighboring villages. Around 30 new pupils were enrolled into the local school. As it turned out, all of them were from families of Russian collaborators who fled from liberated raions of Kherson region.
New «Russian governor of Myrne», appointed after Vitalii Nikolaev died, fled from liberated Kozatske village of Novokakhovka community of Kakhovka raion of Kherson region. His name is Prychepii Viktor Pavlovych. He has been small entrepreneur in his native Kozatske village. After Russian occupants seized it, they appointed him as the «governor of the village». His wife Svetlana helped him. Both escaped to the occupied Left Bank of Dnipro a few days before the Ukrainian troops liberated their village. Finally, they settled in Myrne.
Viktor Prychepii. Screenshot of video
Residents of Myrne community say that Viktor Prychepii is very brutal. Together with other local collaborators, he terrorizes local residents.
«Together with Russian occupants, they persecuted people whom they did not like. They took local men to the street, undressed them, publicly beat, humiliated and threatened to persecute their families and relatives. Now people are scared to tell about it. Even those who escaped abroad cannot get rid of this fear», as report residents of Myrne.
Myrne community is located near the administrative border with Crimea. It has been easier for local residents to escape by going through Crimean peninsula and Russia. Almost all refugees from the region stayed abroad and did not come back to the territory controlled by Ukraine.
However, some local residents made an impressive career in occupied Kherson region. Yevhenia Kristofoli from the Crimean city of Armyansk has been among them. She has been appointed by Russian invaders as «the governor» of Preobrazhenka village.
Her career prospects were promising but she seduced the husband of another collaborator – Kekutia Lidia Valeriivna (date of birth – February 14, 1984), the main accountant of Myrne village council. Betrayed wife used her contacts in Russian occupation authorities to punish her rival. As an outcome, Myrne residents speculate that Yevhenia Kristofoli will be dismissed and transferred to another village.
Collaborator Lidia Kekutia (center) with Olga Gagarina, the nephew of Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin at the meeting in Preobrazhenka village, April 2023. Photo from occupation social media.
Local deputy and member of local executive committee: the family of collaborators Ivanechko
«Nobody expected they would be sadists», as characterized local resident the family of Ivanechko from Makarivka village.
Ivanechko Ludmila Mykolaivna, born on April 20, 1970, is the director of Myrne secondary school (she has headed the school since 1970), member of the executive committee of Myrne village council and teacher of the Ukrainian language and literature. In 2022, she has voted at the illegal referendum for «uniting» Kherson region with Russia. She received the Russian passport and headed «Myrne school of Kalanchak municipal district» illegally registered by Russian occupants on the basis of her school.
Collaborator Ludmila Ivanechko. Photo from social media
Her husband Ivanechko Valerii Volodymyrovych, born on September 6, 1962, is the director of local communal enterprise «Preobrazhenka». He is also the deputy of Myrne village council from Ukrainian political party «Nash krai».
Local residents say that they received «housing certificate» from the Russian occupation authorities and bought an apartment in Crimea. Though, they are afraid to move to Crimea as the peninsula is regularly hit by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Collaborators complain that they do not have relatives in Russia and are not able to find «safe shelter». On the other hand, it is reported that Russian occupants do not permit local collaborators like Ivanechko to leave Kherson region (there were a number of similar cases).
«Ivanechko love money, not «the Russian world». Russian occupants paid a lot of money to their collaborators at the beginning of the war. Now they cut their financial flows. More to that, Russians started «optimizing» a network of bodies registered by them in Myrne», as report local residents.
People recall that local teachers-collaborators deceived parents and brought 34 local children to resort in the Russian region of Krasnodarsky krai. They did not return them on planned date. Local residents think that they were not going to return them at all. There has been huge scandal, and children were returned, with one month delay.
Russian invaders proudly announced that they brought refrigerators to the kindergarten in Preobrazhenka village, July 28, 2023. Photo from Russian occupation social media
Suspected in an assassination attempt
Local residents of Myrne community say that all their local collaborators were connected with Andrii Suchko, the former head of the community.
«Before the Russian occupation, only people close to Suchko could get a job in the village council. The community has been created by merging Chervonochabanka and Myrne villages in 2016. This territorial community has been very small in Kherson region. But it has been rich community as military unit and wind power plants located on its territory brought large revenues. 36 people were employed by the village council. There were just a few municipal enterprises», as report sources of the CJI in the local community.
The composition of Myrne village council has been the following. Ten members of the council were elected from Ukrainian political party «Nash krai» [Our region]. Kherson regional office of the party has been headed by Vitalii Buluk, one of the most renowned traitors. Two members were elected from pro-Russian political party «Opposition Platform – for the Life». Ten members were self-nominees. Their majority was closely connected with Oleksii Kovalyov, member of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine from presidential political party «Servant of People» and traitor. He has been killed in August 2022.
Andrii Suchok has been dismissed at the end of 2021. He has been accused of plotting an assassination of Viktor Dziatkevych, member of Myrne village council and director of local agricultural enterprise «Chervony chaban». In accordance with police investigation, Andrii Suchok promised one person to pay 7 thousand USD for beating Dziatkevych. The person reported to the law enforcement bodies. Policemen staged an assassination.
Andrii Suchok. Photo from the author’s archives
Andrii Suchok has been arrested when he transferred the second part of payment. He has been imprisoned until April 3, 2022. He faced an imprisonment from 7 to 10 years.
The Russian full scale invasion interrupted the court consideration of the case. Andrii Suchok has been conscripted on June 28, 2022 and sent to the Ukrainian military unit. Kyiv raion court of Odesa decided in August 2022 to postpone the court consideration until demobilization of Suchok from the military service.
Stella at the entrance to Kalanchak. Photo: Oleg Baturin
«Everybody knows Sasha-kanistra in Kalanchak»
Morozenko Oleksandr Viktorovych has headed the office of the Ukrainian State Treasury in Kalanchak for many years until spring 2023. His nickname is «Sasha-kanistra» («kanistra» means «canister» for gasoline). According to local residents, he has been among three leading collaborators who helped Russian occupants to understand the work of local self-government in Ukraine.
Morozenko is the member of Kalanchak village council from presidential political party «Servant of People». It has been planned to cancel his membership upon people’s initiative at the meeting of Kherson regional office of the party on March 3, 2022. The Russian invasion thwarted this plan.
«We did not succeed in cancelling his membership in the council. We decided to do it because Morozenko lost contact with our team and with the party. He has not been the member of our party. He started playing his own game in Kalanchak. He did not attend sessions of the village council and did not perform his duties as the member of council. Before the Russian invasion, it seemed he went mad», as explained Yuri Sobolevsky, the head of Kherson regional organization of political party «Servant of People», the First Deputy Head of Kherson Oblast Council.
Collaborator Oleksandr Morozenko. Photo from social media
As local residents say, Morozenko received his nickname «Sasha-kanistra» because he took bribes in the form of the canister of gasoline or coupons for 20 liters of gasoline when somebody needed to conduct urgent payment through the State Treasury.
«Morozenko informed Russian occupants about accountants who worked in Kalanchak and Myrne communities», as say local residents.
Oleksandr Morozenko would like to head Russian occupation office of the treasury in Kalanchak. He submitted an application about his retirement from the position in the Ukrainian Treasury. But then the Ukrainian Armed Forces liberated the Right Bank of Kherson region and Morozenko was afraid that they would liberate the Left Bank, too. He called back his application. He argued that he wrote it «under the pressure of Russian occupants». The Ukrainian authorities satisfied his request. But then Morozenko realized that liberation was delayed. Finally, he submitted the second application and headed the department of statistics in the Russian occupation administration of Kalanchak.
Oleksandr Morozenko carries paving tiles in occupied Kalanchak. Photo: the CJI
It is not the complete list of Russian collaborators in Myrne and Kalanchak communities.
As local residents persuade, the majority of residents of both communities did not collaborate with Russian occupants.
