The former head of the State Production and Consumer Service of Mykolaiv Oblast will be tried for cooperation with the Russians during the occupation

An official who headed the field of veterinary medicine during the occupation will be tried in the Kherson region.

This is reported by the Kherson Regional Prosecutor's Office.

We are talking about Oleh Kalnaus, the former head of the Main Department of the State Production and Consumer Service in the Mykolaiv region.

According to the investigation, in April 2023 he agreed to cooperate with the Russian army and assumed the position of the so-called «acting Head of the Department of Veterinary Medicine of the Kherson Region».

In this position, the man carried out general management of the illegal body, recruited and appointed employees. He integrated Russian information systems into the work, took on balance equipment brought by the occupiers. Also included in the protocol veterinary drugs used in Russia.

Before the full-scale invasion, the accused worked for a long time and headed the State Production and Consumer Service in the Mykolaiv region, the prosecutor's office notes.

We will remind you that in 2016 it became known that an organized criminal group had been operating in the Mykolaiv region for about 3 years, which was engaged in the movement of agricultural products across the country's customs border. The law enforcement officers discovered that Oleh Kalnaus, the head of Derprodspozhivsluzhba at that time, was involved in the group.

It will be recalled that at the same time, an outbreak of African swine fever was recorded in Nova Odesa, which the officials tried to hide.

When the officials of the Nova Odesa RDA and the State Production and Consumer Service in the Novo-Odesa district came to the applicant, they offered to pay her 20,000 hryvnias, and in return they received 11 sick pigs and a receipt addressed to the head of the district production and consumption service Oleksandr Stradomskyi stating that the applicant no longer has any claims.

Later, the acting head of the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration, Vyacheslav Bon, stated that the information about searches of Oleh Kalnaus as part of the investigation of the OZH, which moved agricultural products across the country's customs border, was made to discredit the specialist and for the sake of fighting for the position of chief veterinarian of the region.