Law enforcement officers have reported suspicions against Kherson resident Serhiy Tsyholik, who systematically distributed anti-Ukrainian materials on Telegram.
This was reported on the website of the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine.
Tsyholik’s publications contained assertions that justified the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, promoted narratives about the “integration” of the Kherson region into the Russian Federation, and denied the fact of the temporary occupation of part of Ukraine’s territory.
The investigation established that Tsyholik acted intentionally, using his own Telegram account to disseminate propaganda content.
The materials he spread also contained calls to revoke recognition of Ukraine’s independence and proposals to revise the state border in favor of the Russian Federation. All the distributed information was available to an unrestricted circle of users.
The investigation believes that these actions were aimed at supporting the aggressor state and were ideological in nature.
Tsyholik is charged with several criminal offenses:
- Part 1 of Article 110 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine — dissemination of materials calling for deliberate actions aimed at changing the borders of Ukraine and its state border in violation of the Constitution;
- Part 2 of Article 436-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine — dissemination of materials that justify the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine that began in 2014;
- Part 3 of Article 436-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine — repeated dissemination of materials containing justification of Russian aggression and denial of the temporary occupation of part of Ukraine’s territory.
Tseholik was born in the city of Belovo in Altai Krai, but lived in Kherson for over forty years.
What he did all those years is hard to say. It is known that he had his own coffee shop on Perekopska Street, not far from the Kherson Palace of Youth and Students.
Before that he had time to become a member of Oleksiy Ursulenko’s Healthy Eating Club Oleksiy Ursulenko.
Tsyholik even participated in the so-called “Russian runs” and the well-known provocation at Kherson Maidan.
In April 2013 Serhiy Tsyholik became a co-founder of the NGO “Local Initiative”. Besides him, the founders of the NGO are Kirill Stremousov and Maksym Lilla.
Interestingly, after 2014, when Stremousov fled and was in hiding for almost one and a half years, any public connection between Serhiy Tsyholik and him disappeared.
In October 2022 the occupiers appointed Serhiy Tsyholik the new director of the captured Kherson Palace of Youth and Students, which was previously called DKT.
At the end of October 2022 he evacuated to Skadovsk. In November 2022 he opened a coffee shop in Skadovsk.
In the autumn of 2023, in illegal elections he was appointed a deputy of the so-called council of deputies of the Skadovsk municipal district from the “United Russia” party.