Following the withdrawal of Russian troops from the right bank of the Kherson Oblast, the SBU launched so-called stabilization measures. These resulted in a large number of searches and arrests, with many people disappearing and some even being killed. This affected employees of the Kherson pre-trial detention center (SIZO) who remained at work during the Russian military’s presence in the city. According to media reports and human rights activists, the head of the Kherson SIZO, Kirill Rashin, who collaborated with the Russian authorities, was killed. Three other SIZO employees—Senior Lieutenant Irina Polekhova, Lieutenant Colonel Evgeny Usachev, and Lieutenant Colonel Igor Guryakov—were arrested.
33-year-old Irina Polekhova gave birth to a child while in the SIZO. Before February 2022, under Ukrainian rule, she worked as an operative officer combating drug trafficking in the operational department of the Kherson pre-trial detention center. After the arrival of the Russian army, Irina spent over five months as a senior operative officer in the operational department of the institution “Pre-Trial Detention Center No. 1” of the Federal Penitentiary Service of the Russian Federation in the Kherson Oblast. After her arrest, she was charged under Part 2 of Article 111 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code (treason). The case files contain no mention of Irina’s involvement in any repressions against the local population. She committed no such repressions. According to her lawyer, the woman received no evacuation order from her Ukrainian superiors and, according to her job description, simply had no right to leave her workplace, as the detention center housed individuals accused of serious crimes, including. She could neither open the cells nor leave the prisoners locked up to essentially die. This means that she was charged with treason solely for working in law enforcement agencies in territories occupied by the enemy, which is explicitly prohibited by the Fourth Geneva Convention.
A week before the preliminary hearing, Polekhova, for the sake of her child’s future, made a deal with the prosecutors and pleaded guilty, receiving a six-year sentence with confiscation of property instead of the 15 years (or even life imprisonment) that could have been imposed under Article 111.
The case of acting head of the Kherson SIZO, Igor Guryakov, and his deputy, Evgeny Usachev, is more complex. According to Ukrainian media reports from the spring of 2022, they were Ukrainian patriots and in May prevented Russian soldiers from entering the SIZO, for which they were reportedly to be sent to Crimea for trial. Why they were not sent is unknown. It was said that Guryakov later recorded a “pro-Russian” video under duress. Guryakov and Usachev did not leave Kherson with the Russian troops (some believe this was due to their hidden “pro-Ukrainian” stance) and found themselves in a Ukrainian court facing the prospect of life imprisonment. Their lawyer argued that the defendants did not leave their posts because they received no information about the evacuation of staff and prisoners (over 300 at the time), and therefore had no right to leave. Moreover, they repeatedly contacted the Office of the President of Ukraine and other authorities for instructions on further actions, but received no response. Then, according to the defense, on May 11, 2022, Russian soldiers detained Guryakov and Usachev for resisting arrest, took them in handcuffs to the basement of the Kherson Appeal Court, and tortured them for three days. Whether this is true or not is unknown, but something else is definitely known.
On May 15, 2022, Igor Guryakov told Russian media that he had been an SBU agent since 2005, with the call sign “Gurón,” and that his handler, Andriy Siplyvyy, had tasked him with organizing a prisoner riot and escape at the SIZO to destabilize the situation in Russian-controlled Kherson. Ukrainian media were then supposed to blame Russia for the actions of the criminals on the city streets. While carrying out the SBU’s assignment, on May 11, Guryakov released 280 prisoners, including those serving life sentences for rape, robbery, and banditry. They immediately rushed to storm the checkpoint. At the last moment, Guryakov changed his mind.
“Don’t listen to your handlers (SBU), continue to perform your duties… If you release the convicts and pre-trial detainees, the city will simply descend into chaos. The convicts have nowhere to go; there will be robberies, banditry, and rapes. Therefore, I ask everyone to remain at their posts,”—this, according to Guryakov, is what he said to his personnel.
With the help of the remaining SIZO staff (barely a third by then), he tried to stop the prisoners, but they no longer cared. Then they opened fire, killing one prisoner. The situation did not stabilize, and Guryakov requested help from the Russian commandant of Kherson. Within 10-15 minutes, Russian military police arrived at the detention center and suppressed the riot.
Guryakov confessed to cooperating with the SBU but stated that he was ready to continue fulfilling his duties to restore order in the detention center and did so. On May 13, 2022, the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office accused the entire SIZO leadership of treason.
At least four more cases against employees of the Kherson SIZO are currently in court.
“What am I sitting here for?” one of them asked during the trial. “For looking after the convicts according to the regulations?!”
He claims he performed the same duties as under Ukrainian rule, even wearing his Ukrainian uniform, and until June 1, 2022, the Ukrainian flag flew over the SIZO. Ukraine took no measures to evacuate personnel.
All the accused are held in Mykolaiv but are being tried in Odessa. They participate in the hearings via video link, but the hearings are rarely held due to internet outages and constant air raid alerts, during which the courts are closed. Therefore, the cases are essentially not being considered; the people are imprisoned, and at the few hearings, their pre-trial detention is simply extended.
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