The occupying former education minister of the Kherson region, Mykhailo Rodikov, was handed a new verdict for encroachment on the territorial integrity of Ukraine and justifying the occupation. As a result of the combination of two verdicts, he was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment with confiscation of property.
This is stated in the corresponding court verdict.
The court found that in September 2022, Mykhailo Rodikov, while heading the occupation «Ministry of Education and Science of the Kherson region», actively participated in organizing and conducting an illegal referendum on joining the region to the Russian Federation.
Thus, during staff meetings he forced educators to take part in the sham vote, and also issued an order to announce school holidays in educational institutions from September 22 to 28, 2022, in order to ensure the use of school premises as «polling stations».
At a public event on September 23, 2022, in the «ministry» building on Potemkinska Street, he made public appeals in front of propagandistic media cameras to vote for the annexation of the Kherson region, and also justified the occupation using narratives about the «historical injustice of the USSR’s collapse» and promoted Russian ideology in school lessons.
Under the new verdict, Rodikov was sentenced to 5 years behind bars for encroachment on territorial integrity and 8 years for justifying aggression. By absorbing the less severe sentence into the more severe one, the term amounted to 8 years.
At the same time, the court took into account that in May 2025 Rodikov had already been convicted in absentia by the same court for collaborationism (Part 6 of Art. 111-1 of the Criminal Code) to 12 years’ imprisonment.
On the basis of Part 4 of Art. 70 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, by partially combining the sentences under both verdicts, the court determined Rodikov’s final punishment as 15 years of imprisonment with confiscation of all his property. He was also deprived of the right to hold positions in state authorities, local self-government and law enforcement bodies for 15 years. The term of serving the sentence will be counted from the moment of his arrest.
It is known that Mykhailo Rodikov from 2015–2018 headed the occupation Department of Education and Science of Sevastopol. Later he worked in the Moscow region. He appeared in the Kherson region in the summer of 2022, but at the beginning of 2023 he was dismissed from the position.
Sanctions have been imposed against Mykhailo Rodikov by Japan, Ukraine, Switzerland, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, the USA and Canada.
Also, sanctions were planned to be imposed against him by North Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Bosnia and Herzegovina.