Kherson Regional Council deputy from the Vladimir Saldo Bloc, Serhii Sorokunskyi Sr., has been released from the pre-trial detention center (SIZO).
This was reported on Facebook by lawyer Mykhailo Velychko, although, as of 23:50 on February 10, 2025, the post is no longer available.
From the documents partially readable in the screenshot of the post, it becomes clear that the judges of the Dniprovskyi District Court granted the lawyers’ motion and changed the preventive measure for Sorokunskyi from detention to bail.
Velychko redacted the amount of the bail from the documents.
Outside the SIZO, Serhii Sorokunskyi Sr. was met by his son Serhii Sorokunskyi Jr. and his daughter Inna Sorokunska.
Previously, MOST repeatedly wrote about the case of Sorokunskyi, the “federal advisor.”
In July 2025 we wrote that the case of the Kherson deputy, who transported Ukrainian agricultural products to the Russian Federation and used passes issued by the Russians, was transferred to court.
Since September 2025 we have not been able to find new documents in the court register related to the case.
According to the case materials, after the capture of Kherson, Sorokunskyi Sr. participated in the “confiscation” and removal of property belonging to Ukrainian agricultural producers to the Russian Federation.
“On his tip, Russian military personnel broke into Ukrainians’ homes and forced them to hand over their agricultural products and farm equipment. Afterwards, the deputy stored the looted property on the territory of companies under his control, which he then sent to the Russian Federation,” the SBU press service in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea reported.
In this way Sorokunskyi transported more than 130 tons of stolen sunflower seed to Russia.
In addition, the deputy provided Russian military personnel with housing, food and serviced their military equipment.
For this, Serhii Sorokunskyi received the status of “federal advisor” and a pass.
During the liberation of Kherson region the man fled abroad, and later returned to Ukraine.
“SBU officers established his location and detained him. During searches of the suspect’s residence and enterprise, computers, accounting documents and rough notes were seized, which confirm the committed crimes,” the special service reported.
As early as spring 2023, materials were found at Sorokunskyi’s home confirming that he cooperated with the Russians.
On March 5, SBU officers in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea informed Sorokunskyi of suspicion of aiding an aggressor state and conducted searches at his home. The next day he was released on bail of 908,000 hryvnias, but he received a new suspicion under Art. 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine “War crimes”. This time the court decided to arrest the suspect without the right to bail.
Based on the collected evidence, the suspect is charged under two articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine :
- Part 1 of Art. 111-2 (aiding an aggressor state);
- under Part 2 of Art. 28, Part 1 of Art. 438 (war crimes committed by prior conspiracy by a group of persons).
Serhii Sorokunskyi has been the director of LLC “Saphir LTD” since 2008, which is engaged in wholesale trade of solid, liquid, gaseous fuels and similar products, and is a co-founder of the farm “Saphir-Agro”, which engages in growing cereal crops, leguminous crops and oilseed crops, grows vegetables, breeds livestock, engages in wholesale trade of agricultural products and carries out cargo transportation.
In 2020 he was elected to the 8th convocation of the Kherson Regional Council from the now-banned political party “Vladimir Saldo Bloc”.
After the start of the full-scale invasion he was captured by Russian forces, but Sorokunskyi was later released.
At the end of 2023 Sorokunskyi filed a lawsuit against the publications MOST and Hryvna. He asked the court to force the media to retract information about possible cooperation with the Russians. During the consideration of the lawsuit it became known that the court seized the property of the family’s agricultural enterprise in the investigation of possible collaboration by the regional council deputy and his family members.
In April 2024 the court dismissed his lawsuit against the journalists and later did not satisfy his appeal.