Shevchenko, the former commander of the 73rd Naval Special Operations Center, was convicted of treason
On April 1, the former commander of the Ochakiv 73rd Naval Special Operations Center and advisor to Mayor Eduard Shevchenko was found guilty of treason and sentenced to 15 years in prison with confiscation of property. The decision was handed down by a panel of judges at the Zavodskyi District Court.
This was reported by local media.
According to the verdict, the court acquitted Shevchenko under Part 1 of Article 111 of the Criminal Code, which pertained to the 2018 events related to the arrival of a British warship in Odesa. At the same time, he was found guilty of treason and illegal handling of weapons. This refers to charges of recruiting Ochakiv Mayor Serhiy Bychkov and passing information to Russia.
The court sentenced him to 15 years in prison, taking into account the time he has already spent in pretrial detention, where he has been held for three years. The convicted man will also be required to pay 21,000 UAH in expenses for forensic examinations. Some of the physical evidence will be retained by the SBU, while the rest will be destroyed once the verdict becomes final. The seized weapons are planned to be transferred to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
After the verdict was announced, Shevchenko stated that he understood its content but did not agree with the court’s decision. “I plan to appeal the verdict and refuse a possible exchange that was previously offered to me,” he said.
According to the investigation, in March 2023, the SBU’s counterintelligence thwarted Russia’s plans to occupy the coastal areas of Mykolaiv Oblast. During a special operation in Ochakiv, Shevchenko was detained; according to the investigation, he was gathering intelligence to facilitate the capture of the city.
The SBU reports that Russian military intelligence tasked Shevchenko with persuading city officials to cooperate with the occupiers. The mayor was offered a “position” in the event of the southern region’s capture, but he refused and informed the SBU of the recruitment attempts.
“It has been established that the GRU agent was the former commander of one of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ special operations centers. Following the full-scale invasion, Russian military intelligence established contact with the official to conduct intelligence and sabotage activities against Ukraine,” the SBU reported.
Law enforcement officials note that Shevchenko was in constant contact with GRU staff officer Serhiy Kolesnikov. At his instruction, the official covertly gathered information about the bases and movements of Defense Forces units and attempted to leverage connections among former military personnel and officials.
During searches, the SBU discovered a “secret” phone, thermal imaging devices, and unregistered weapons with ammunition.
Shevchenko’s Biography and Service
Eduard Shevchenko was born in 1977 in Kamchatka (Russian SFSR) into a military family. Despite his father’s objections, he went to Vladivostok, where he completed his mandatory military service, and then moved to Ukraine. In 2000, he graduated from the Nakhimov Black Sea Higher Naval School in Sevastopol and began serving in the Ukrainian Marine Corps.
In early 2014, he commanded a detachment of the 73rd Naval Special Operations Center and participated in combat operations in eastern Ukraine, including the liberation of Sloviansk and battles for Toretsk, Kramatorsk, Siversk, and Yampil.
In March 2016, he became the commander of the 73rd Marine Special Operations Center in Ochakiv. In 2017, a military medical commission diagnosed him with post-traumatic stress disorder, but Shevchenko appealed the decision and continued his service.
In 2023, while serving as an advisor to the mayor of Ochakiv, he was detained by the SBU on suspicion of collaborating with Russia’s GRU, attempting to recruit the mayor and secure the local authorities’ loyalty to Russia’s actions.
