Court hearing held in Kropyvnytskyi in case of ex-intelligence officer Chervinskyi
A court hearing was held in Kropyvnytskyi in the case of former intelligence officer Roman Chervinskyi. During the June 10 session, one of the 17 individuals injured in the shelling of the Kanatove airfield was questioned.
This was reported by Censor.NET, citing Suspilne.
According to the prosecutor, the servicemember who testified had served under Chervinskyi in 2022.
"He was directly subordinate to Mr. Chervinskyi in the Special Operations Forces and led the group that arrived from Kyiv. He met Chervinskyi directly at the airfield. He stated that he was not given specific or full orders. He also noted that Chervinskyi had not taken any measures to ensure the safety of personnel. He considers himself a victim, given the injuries he sustained," said prosecutor Yaroslav Havryshchuk.
Chervinskyi believes the servicemember has a biased attitude toward him.
"I questioned him as his former commander. He responded emotionally, saying that he’s unable to obtain combatant status because some documents were not properly processed. What happened at the airfield wasn’t a combat operation. Anyone, even civilians, can be injured — that doesn’t automatically make it combat-related. The level of compensation is different. The victim is seeking some kind of justice, and the prosecutors are exploiting that," Chervinskyi explained.
The next court hearing in the case is scheduled for July 16.
Roman Chervinskyi's case
The media reported that the Ukrainian military had been recruiting a Russian pilot for several months to hijack the plane. According to media reports, Roman Chervinskyi was among them. Subsequently, as the SSU noted, the "operation" was carried out over the objections of the SSU and without the consent of the relevant state authorities. As a result, the enemy received information about the deployment of personnel of the Ukrainian Air Force and Ukrainian aircraft at the Kanatove airfield. This allowed the Russian Armed Forces to shell the airfield.
Later, Chervinskyi gave an exclusive interview for Censor.NET in which he spoke about the operation at Kanatove airfield.
In April 2023, the SSU served Chervinskyi with a notice of suspicion in the case of the shelling of the Kanatove airfield in Kirovohrad region by the occupiers. He was detained in the Ternopil region.
Major General Viktor Hanushchak, who was in charge of the military unit to which Colonel Chervinskyi was assigned as deputy commander, told Censor.NET that the operation at Kanatove airfield had been agreed with the top leadership of the Armed Forces. However, the court refused to hear Hanushchak and did not accept evidence in favour of Chervinskyi.
Roman Chervinskyi was one of the intelligence officers who organised an operation in 2020 to detain Russian mercenaries from the Wagner PMC, luring them to Belarus. There, the mercenaries were supposed to board a plane that would later be crash-landed in Ukraine by the Ukrainian special services. However, the operation failed. On 24 June 2021, President Zelensky confirmed the preparation of a special operation against the Wagnerites. Zelenskyy also said that the special operation against the Wagnerites was the idea of other countries and that Ukraine was involved in this issue as much as possible.
In December 2021, DIU intelligence officers Chervinskyi and Semeniuk spoke about the betrayal of the operation. According to Chervinskyi, several people from the President's Office could have leaked information about the operation to detain the Wagnerites. He also said that the Presidential Office threatened the ex-intelligence officers with criminal proceedings.
On 28 December 2023, Colonel Roman Chervinskyi was served a notice of suspicion of attempting to seize USD 100,000 by impersonating an official of the State Fiscal Service.
On 17 July 2024, Chervinskyi was released on bail, extending his detention until 4 August. On 18 July 2024, the Court placed Chervinskyi under round-the-clock house arrest as part of a new criminal proceeding.
