In November 2022, the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) entered Kherson. Shortly thereafter, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) detained local residents Viktor Kirillov and Viktor Kozodoy. They were charged with collaborationism (Article 111-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) for working as drivers for the Russian police in Kherson. The potential sentence was 12 to 15 years.
In court, the men did not deny working in Russian-occupied Kherson, but were shocked by the 15-year sentence proposed for drivers.
“I worked as a driver,” Kirillov said, “transporting an investigative team, repairing vehicles. There was no other work. There was banditry and looting. I thought I was helping the people of Kherson maintain public order. We responded to domestic disputes, robberies, and looting.”
From 1995 to 2010, Viktor Kirillov worked as a patrol officer in the Ukrainian militia. He then retired. On June 16, 2022, in Russian-controlled Kherson, he took a position as a police driver in the Korabelny City Police Department. His service vehicle had Ukrainian license plates, and he did not obtain a Russian passport. Kirillov could not access his Ukrainian pension because ATMs were not functioning, and he lived on his Russian salary of 40,000 rubles.
After the arrival of Ukrainian forces, he did not leave, confident he had not broken any laws. Furthermore, he was questioned in November 2022 and released, with charges only filed two months later. He was detained in mid-January 2023.
Considering the severity of the charge and fearing he would leave prison in his seventies, Kirillov agreed to a guilty plea in exchange for a lighter sentence. This meant the court did not consider the evidence.
The other defendant, Viktor Kozodoy, also worked as a driver in the Korabelny City Police Department in Russian-occupied Kherson. However, he received no documents confirming his affiliation with law enforcement, meaning the prosecution had none either. According to Kozodoy, he and his wife were unemployed, and his immobile mother was not receiving her Ukrainian pension (Ukraine did not pay pensions in Russian-occupied territories), so he had to take whatever work he could find.
Between August 2nd and November 11th, 2022, he received his salary three times: once 37,000 rubles and twice 25,000 rubles. Describing his work, the defendant stated that he often responded to calls where people had died at home and their bodies had lain undiscovered for a couple of months.
As soon as the UAF entered the city, he approached the soldiers to inquire about his future, but nothing happened. Furthermore, he was left undisturbed until January 29, 2023, during another SBU “stabilization operation.” Kozodoy signed a confession and was very surprised when the prosecutor requested a 12.5-year prison sentence instead of the expected 5 years probation.
The SBU press service claimed that Kirillov and Kozodoy murdered and robbed people in Kherson and transported Ukrainian patriots to “torture chambers.” The indictment contains no such allegations.
Despite their guilty pleas and the absence of violent crimes in the indictment, in late April 2023, Kirillov and Kozodoy were sentenced under Part 7 of Article 111-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine to 12.5 and 12 years imprisonment respectively.
In October 2023, the Kyiv Court of Appeals reduced Viktor Kirillov’s sentence to 9 years.
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