The Khadzhibey District Court of Odesa delivered a verdict against Kherson carrier Ihor Odarchenko, who during the occupation of the right-bank part of the Kherson region ferried people by boats to the left bank.
This is stated in the relevant court ruling.
The investigation established that in August 2022 the man concluded a contract with the municipal enterprise “Khersonkomuntransservice”, under which he organized the transportation of the population across the Dnipro River — from Kherson to Oleshky and Hola Prystan.
The investigation considered that Odarchenko not only conducted entrepreneurial activity and interacted with illegal authorities, but also effectively provided his boats for use by Russian military personnel.
Ukrainian law enforcement detained Odarchenko in November 2022. Since then he has been held in custody.
The man was present in court and denied his guilt. He stated that he began transporting people due to difficult financial circumstances and to help local residents, since after the destruction of the Antonivskyi Bridge many people were forced to cross the Dnipro by boat. According to him, he carried passengers at a significantly lower price than other carriers, and he refused to transport Russian military personnel.
He also noted that some of his boats were later forcibly seized by the military.
A witness who worked as a boat captain said that the main activity was transporting people between Kherson, Oleshky and Hola Prystan. According to him, he did not see military personnel among the passengers.
At the same time, two passenger witnesses reported that although the boats usually carried civilians, they personally saw Russian soldiers. One of them said that a group of armed soldiers simply sat in the boat along with the passengers and were ferried to the other bank.
Another female witness said that on one occasion the soldiers approached the carrier, after which he allowed them to board the boat out of turn. In her words, this appeared to be forced, and the carrier himself apologized to the people.
After examining the evidence, the court found Ihor Odarchenko guilty of aiding the state-aggressor (part 4 of article 111-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). He was sentenced to 3 years and 3 months of imprisonment with confiscation of property.
He was given credit toward serving the sentence from the date of his actual detention, in connection with which his sentence is considered served. Thus he was released from custody in the courtroom.