Kherson City Court delivered a verdict against the former principal of Kherson School No. 30, Oksana Barnash. She was found guilty of collaborationism and assisting the aggressor state.
This is stated in the court’s verdict.
As the investigation established, in July 2022 Barnash voluntarily agreed to head School No. 30, which had been seized by the occupiers.
In August, the lawful Department of Education of the Kherson City Council suspended the contract with Barnash, but she continued to run the school under the control of the occupation authorities.
She oversaw the renaming of the school, the inventory of property, and personally handled selecting teachers to work under the rules of the occupation administration.
Oksana Barnash also ensured the payment of employees’ salaries in Russian rubles, took part in distributing material assistance to families with children funded by the occupation authorities, organized the placement of Russian flags and other state symbols of the Russian Federation in the school, and also encouraged educators to cooperate with the Russian invaders.
The court in absentia found Oksana Barnash guilty of collaborationist activities and assisting the aggressor state (Part 3 of Article 111-1 and Part 1 of Article 111-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). She was sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment with confiscation of property.
Oksana Barnash had worked at Kherson School No. 30 since 1988. In 2001 she became the head of the institution.
In 2017 she sabotaged the school’s transition to instruction in Ukrainian, and in 2020 she joined the executive committee of the Kherson City Council on the quota of Ihor Kolykhaiev.
Shortly before the liberation of Kherson, Barnash, together with her husband Andriy Mykolayovych, left for Russia. Later information appeared that Barnash was seen in the Spanish city of Alicante, where she was reportedly registered as a refugee from Ukraine.
In 2024 the couple were spotted in the Russian city of Saint Petersburg.