Ukraine's Security Service exposes businessman from Melitopol who produces “dragon's teeth” for Russians

The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) has served a notice of suspicion on a businessman who manufactures fortifications and repairs roads for the Russians in the temporarily occupied part of Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Source: the Security Service of Ukraine; Zaporizhzhia Oblast Prosecutor's Office  Details: The Security Service reports that it is a local businessman, Ihor Skorobohatko.

The investigation indicates that the businessman with pro-Russian views voluntarily agreed to assist the occupation administration in implementing criminal decisions since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.

He headed the Melitopol Asphalt Concrete Plant after the Russians seized it and began to actively call on the company's employees to support the Russians and cooperate with them, the prosecutor's office notes. In October 2022, Skorobohatko received a large-scale "contract" from the Russians for producing more than 1,000 anti-tank barriers, known as "dragon's teeth". The Russians set up such pyramidal concrete obstacles along their defence lines to deter the counteroffensive of the Armed Forces on the southern front.

In addition, Skorobohatko is among the close entourage of Yevhen Balytskyi, the Russian-appointed governor of Zaporizhzhia Oblast, who contributed to his appointment to the "position" of the head of the captured Melitopol Asphalt Concrete Plant, the SSU says. Skorobohatko began reconstruction of the Melitopol-Berdiansk road at the facilities of his plant in the summer of 2022. The Russians used this road to deliver personnel and military equipment across the territory of the oblast, as well as to Crimea and back.

The investigators of the Security Service served the defendant with a notice of suspicion of aiding Russia based on the collected evidence. Quote: "Currently, the perpetrator is hiding from justice in the temporarily occupied part of the south of Ukraine. However, the SSU knows about his whereabouts and is taking complex measures to bring him to justice for crimes against our state."

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