Ukraine jails local official for working with Russia

Ukraine said Thursday it had sentenced a former local official to 15 years behind bars on high treason charges for aiding Russian forces.

The jailing of the deputy from the Sumy region, which borders Russia, is the latest conviction in thousands of collaboration cases opened since the war started in February 2022.

“He was sentenced to 15 years in prison and his property has been confiscated,” the office of the prosecutor general said in a statement.

It said the deputy had provided food and information about the Sumy region to Russian forces.

He urged Ukrainians living under Russian occupation to collaborate with Moscow and wrote statements on social media calling for an insurrection, the statement added.

Local media identified him as Oleksandr Kurpil, a deputy of the town of Trostyanets, and said he had been detained in May 2022.

The town, which had an estimated pre-war population of around 20,000 people, was briefly occupied by Russian forces after they invaded in early 2022 and was liberated in March of the same year.