The deputy occupation minister of digital development and mass communications of Kherson region, Russian propagandist Mykhailo Shpir, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison.
The verdict was issued by the Ivano-Frankivsk City Court.
It was proven that in September 2022 Shpir publicly, via his Telegram channel, offered “free consulting” to the Russian Ministry of Defense to carry out strikes on the energy system, urging to “hammer” primarily the Burshtyn Thermal Power Plant in the Ivano-Frankivsk region in order to disable the country’s unified power grid.
Later, after obtaining the position of head of the occupation department in Volodymyr Saldo’s administration, he coordinated the creation of electronic databases for total control over local residents through pension payments, and in early November 2022, together with Russian military forces, called for blowing up Ukrainian mobile operators’ towers, completely isolating the residents of Kherson region from the Ukrainian information space.
A separate episode of the case involved systematic bullying, insults and death threats against employees of the Security Service of Ukraine who had conducted sanctioned searches at Shpir’s premises as early as 2021. The senior SBU investigator, recognized as a victim in the case, stated that he perceived these threats as absolutely real. Expert examinations analyzed Shpir’s publications in detail, where he announced the inclusion of law enforcement officers in execution lists of Russian special forces, deliberately humiliated the honor of an officer, calling him “louse”, and rejoiced at missile strikes on government buildings.
After the news of the death of the head of the Kirovohrad SBU, Nakonechnyi, Shpir publicly appealed to the investigator in his case calling on him to commit suicide, stating that otherwise “he would have to help with his hands”. Also on social networks he openly threatened physical violence against the entire investigative team, declaring that some of them would definitely not live to see the trial and would be liquidated earlier, and on his Instagram page he openly justified the destruction of peaceful cities, calling the war a punishment for the loss of Ukrainian statehood.
The court found Shpir guilty of state treason in conditions of martial law, collaborationist activity, threatening to kill a law enforcement officer, war propaganda, as well as repeated justification and recognition of the lawfulness of the Russian Federation’s armed aggression against Ukraine.
Separate sentences were set for each of these crimes: 15 years’ imprisonment for state treason, 10 years for collaborationism, 2 years for threats against a law enforcement officer, 1 year for war propaganda, and also 1 and 5 years’ imprisonment for the two parts of the article on justifying Russian aggression. In addition, by way of absorbing sentences, the court took into account the previous verdict of the Ivano-Frankivsk City Court dated June 7, 2023, under which the propagandist already had 10 years for his pro-Russian publications.
Mykhailo Shpir was sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment with confiscation of all his property and a fifteen-year ban on holding positions in state authorities and local self-government.
According to media, Mykhailo Shpir grew up in Krykhivtsi near Ivano-Frankivsk, where he attended school. In 2008 he graduated from the Law Faculty of the Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University.
From spring 2021 he worked in Moscow.
From July 1, 2022, the occupation authorities of the Russian Federation in Kherson region appointed him deputy director of the Department of Digital Development and Mass Communications of the illegal administration of Kherson region, and on September 22 — deputy “minister of digital development and mass communications” of the region.
From July 1, 2022, Shpir became deputy director of the department in the occupation administration of Kherson region. Then — deputy director of the Department of Digital Development and Mass Communications of the so-called military-civilian administration. And from September 22 he was appointed deputy occupation minister.
On June 7, 2023, the Ivano-Frankivsk City Court sentenced him in absentia to 10 years of imprisonment.
In March 2026 Shpir celebrated the Russian strike on Ivano-Frankivsk with sparkling wine.