Former "minister" of occupation government of Crimea, had returned to capital from peninsula, detained in Kyiv
Prosecutors from the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, in cooperation with investigators from the Main Directorate of the Security Service of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, identified and detained a former “minister” from the temporarily occupied Crimea in Kyiv. He has been notified that he is suspected of high treason (Part 1 of Article 111 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
It was reported by the Prosecutor General's Office, according to the Ukrainian News agency.
The individual in question is 65-year-old Serhii Kolobov, who, according to the investigation, has held the position of “chairman of the Crimean Autonomous Republic’s Republican Committee on Fuel, Energy, and Innovation Policy” since 2012. According to the investigation, during the occupation of Crimea, he voluntarily agreed to head the so-called “Ministry of Fuel and Energy of the Republic of Crimea,” thereby becoming part of the occupying administration of the aggressor state.
In this position, he organized the work of the illegally established government body and also facilitated the implementation of the enemy’s policies in the fuel and energy sector on the territory of the peninsula.
Subsequently, Kolobov resigned from the so-called “ministry” and continued to work in the occupied Crimea as the director of a number of joint-stock companies controlled by the russian federation.
In 2026, the former official arrived in territory controlled by Ukraine and settled in Kyiv. Law enforcement officers located him and detained him in accordance with Articles 208 and 615 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine.
During a search of his temporary residence, foreign and domestic passports belonging to a Russian citizen, as well as electronic devices, were seized. At the prosecutor’s request, the court imposed a preventive measure on him—detention without the right to bail. The investigation is ongoing.
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, a collaborator who implemented the russian federation’s “educational standards” in the occupied Crimea was detained in Kyiv. The authoritative British publication The Times published an investigation into the work of Oleh Kulinich, the former head of the Crimean branch of the SSU, for the FSB. In 2022, the SSU detained Oleh Kulinich on suspicion of treason as a result of a special operation led by Vasyl Maliuk, who was the head of the SSU at the time.