Based on the evidence provided by the Security Service, a lifelong imprisonment in absentia has been given to Valentina Chekhova, an ophthalmologist from one of the medical facilities in the occupied Mariupol, who switched sides.
During the battles for the city in March 2022, she "betrayed" seven severely wounded Ukrainian soldiers to the Russian-backed militants. They were hospitalized in the local hospital where she worked, after the capture of the medical facility when a group of invaders led by a Russian military with the call sign "Ossetian" tried to identify defenders among the patients.
Aware of the threat to Ukrainian defenders, the hospital staff preemptively destroyed their uniform, documents, and military equipment. Afterward, the injured defenders of Mariupol were documented as civilian patients who suffered from the intense fighting in the city.
However, during a "ward" tour of the medical facility with the occupiers, Chekhova showed them the beds where the hospitalized Ukrainian soldiers lay. After this revelation, the militants imprisoned the severely wounded Ukrainian defenders and transported them to a Russian torture chamber, subjecting them to brutal torture.
It was also revealed that, in addition to military servicemen of the Armed Forces, the traitor pointed out one of the doctors to "Ossetian," who attempted to save the wounded soldiers. Learning of this, the occupiers confiscated the man's documents, car, and threatened him with "slow death." At the last moment, the doctor managed to escape during the shift change of the "guards" that the Russian occupiers stationed around the medical facility.
Investigations found that for collaboration with the occupiers, Chekhova received "encouragement" in the form of being "appointed as the head of the ophthalmology department" of the captured hospital.
Based on the collected evidence, the court found Chekhova guilty under Article 111, Part 2, of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (state treason committed in conditions of martial law) and sentenced her to lifelong imprisonment in absentia.
As the traitor is in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine, comprehensive measures are underway to hold her accountable.
