Investigators of the SBU investigative department in the Kherson region announced suspicion against Kherson resident Iryna Kolesnik, who during the occupation of the city voluntarily collaborated with the Russian invaders, heading the library that the Russians created on the basis of the captured Kherson Regional Universal Scientific Library named after Oles Honchar.
This is stated in the text of the suspicion, which is published on the website of the Office of the Prosecutor General.
According to law enforcement, Kolesnik received the position in the summer of 2022. She was engaged in reformatting the library network according to Russian standards and publicly justified Russia’s aggression.
In interviews with propagandist media, in particular the TV channel “Tavria”, she stated that Kherson is a “Russian city”, and that Ukrainian literature allegedly promotes nationalism and Nazism.
After the liberation of the right-bank part of the Kherson region, the woman continued her activities in Henichesk, where she fled together with the occupation administration. There she organized events to integrate local libraries into the Russian system and reported on the modernization of the library system. In particular, in the autumn of 2024 she took part in meetings with the leadership of the Russian National Library to establish further cooperation.
Iryna Kolesnik is suspected of collaborationist activity (part 6 of Art. 111-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), encroachment on the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine (part 1 of Art. 110 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) and justification and denial of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine (part 3 of Art. 436-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
The investigation is ongoing.
Earlier we wrote that the SBU announced suspicion against a resident of Kizomys, who headed the seized vocational school in Kherson.