Two former local officials from Kherson Oblast, who took Russia's side during the Russian occupation, are charged in absentia with treason for helping Kremlin to extort money from locals and businesses, the State Investigation Bureau said.
Collaborators voluntarily joined the Russian-installed so-called “tax service” in the southern region.
Both were working in the regional branch of Ukraine's State Tax Service before Russia occupied the region. Collaborators manually decided the "taxes" locals and businesses would pay in the occupied region, the bureau said.
In mid-November, Kherson and the region's western bank of the Dnipro River were liberated. Since then, Kherson and surrounding areas have been under regular shelling from Russian artillery and rocket systems.
