SBU serves suspicion notice in absentia to 3 individuals training schoolchildren in Simferopol for war against Ukraine

The State Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has documented the crimes of Oleksandr Diachenko, head of the occupation "Union of Border Guards of Crimea" and the "Variag Maritime Training Center" in temporarily occupied Simferopol, and two of his subordinates regarding the training of teenagers for service in the Russian armed forces.

"As established by the investigation, both structures are positioned as public organizations, but in reality, their activities are coordinated by Russian special services to prepare the younger generation for service in the armed formations of the aggressor country," the SBU reported on Telegram on Wednesday.

Diachenko involved two of his subordinates, Daria Horokhova and Volodymyr Graf, in the crime.

Plans are in place to simultaneously train at least 150 schoolchildren.

At Variag’s training bases, schoolchildren are taught diving, underwater orientation, and the specifics of conducting diversions in maritime waters.

As the SBU notes, Diachenko regularly receives financing from Russia in the form of presidential grants, and he has already received land near Simferopol for free use from the local occupation administration to create a new military training complex.

Based on the collected evidence, the SBU served suspicion notices to Diachenko, Horokhova, and Graf in absentia according to the crimes committed under several articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine: Part 2 of Art. 28, Part 3 of Art. 436-2 (justification, recognition as legitimate, denial of Russia armed aggression against Ukraine, glorification of its participants, committed by prior conspiracy by a group of persons); Part 2 of Art. 28, Part 1 of Art. 438 (war crimes committed by prior conspiracy by a group of persons).

Comprehensive measures to hold the perpetrators accountable are ongoing.

The investigation was conducted by employees of the Main Directorate of the SBU in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Lviv Region under the procedural guidance of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol.