Ukrainian MP Nestor Shufrych charged with treason

Ukrainian MP Nestor Shufrych has been charged with treason (Article 111 of the Criminal Code), reported the press center of the Security Service of Ukraine.

The Security Service of Ukraine, the State Bureau of Investigation and the Prosecutor General's Office have collected a "substantiated" evidence base regarding his anti-Ukrainian activities.

The investigation materials state that Shufrych "closely cooperated and carried out the tasks of former NSDC secretary Volodymyr Sivkovych, an FSB agent whose task is to coordinate the Russian agents in Ukraine."

According to intelligence services, Sivkovych fled to Moscow in 2014 and created a "mole farm" for subversive activities against Ukraine. He coordinated the former head of the SBU Office in Crimea, Oleh Kulinich, who was also charged with treason.

The SBU claims that one of the main tasks of the lawmaker "was subversive activities in the information sphere", that is, he "systematically spread the Kremlin's narratives that the Ukrainian state is an allegedly artificial entity, that Ukraine and Russia have a single history, and that Ukrainians and Russians are supposedly one people".

"In this way, Shufrych tried to develop pro-Russian sentiments in Ukrainian society," the Service noted.

45 searches are being conducted at Shufrych's residences and those close to him, and the pre-trial investigation is ongoing.

If proven guilty, the suspect faces up to 15 years in prison.

On April 4, 2022, the security forces of Kyiv detained Shufrych for photographing roadblocks, but on May 16, he managed to leave Ukraine, although he returned within a week.

In the fall of 2023, during a search of Shufrych, the law enforcers found a document with the "autonomy" scheme of Donetsk and Luhansk dated 2014.

Shufrych still heads the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Freedom of Speech.