Ukraine bans pro-Russian party SPAS: what it is known for
19 April 2024 15:32
The Eighth Administrative Court of Appeal in Lviv has ruled to ban another pro-Russian party, the Social Patriotic Assembly of Slavs (SPAS). This was reported by the court’s press service, Komersant ukrainskyi 
reports.
“We are talking about the Social Patriotic Assembly of Slavs (SPAS), which conducts information and subversive activities in favour of the aggressor country.”
The court upheld the claims of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine:
- the activities of the political party “Social and Patriotic Assembly of Slavs” were banned;
- the property, funds and other assets of the party, its regional, city, district organisations, primary branches and other structural units were transferred to the state.
According to the SBU, after the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Russia, representatives of the banned political party dispersed almost throughout the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine.
Currently, the head of this political party, Eduard Kovalenko, is hiding from justice in the temporarily occupied Kherson region, where he is in direct contact with the FSB.
At the behest of the Russian secret service, he and his party associates publicly support the aggressive war against Ukraine. There, they agitate local residents to support the aggressor and join the ranks of its occupation groups.
Putin’s supporters also speak to the Russian media allegedly on behalf of “ordinary citizens” of Ukraine and justify Russia’s war crimes.
It should be noted that in September 2022, SBU investigators notified Kovalenko in absentia of suspicion under Article 28(2) and Article 111(2) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (high treason committed under martial law by prior conspiracy by a group of persons).
The indictment has been sent to court.
What is known about the pro-Russian party “SPAS”
“SPAS was created in 2006 by Eduard Kovalenko, a former member of the patriotic and nationalist organisation Ukrainian National Assembly (a political part of UNA-UNSO).
The party opposed Ukraine’s accession to NATO and the European Union. Instead, it proposed the creation of a “union of free Slavic countries”.
In November 2014, the SPS party organised the “Slavic March” of Russian nationalists in Kyiv under the slogan “against the war between fraternal peoples”. It failed miserably, as almost no one came to attend.
In 2015, Kovalenko tried to disrupt the mobilisation in Genichesk.
In May 2017, Kovalenko was sentenced to five years in prison for obstructing the activities of the Armed Forces during a special period and seizing administrative buildings. However, Kovalenko spent only half of his sentence in prison – on 29 December 2019, he was exchanged for captured Ukrainians and went to occupied Luhansk.
However, six months after the prisoner exchange, Kovalenko returned to Genichesk, where he held protests against the increase in utility bills during the lockdown announced by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. The police wrote him a report on violation of quarantine.
In 2021, Kovalenko was detained by the SBU on suspicion of working for the FSB and the pseudo-ministry of ‘state security of the LPR’.
In 2022 , the SBU notified Kovalenko of suspicion of treason. He was looking for gunners and fire adjusters on the territory of Ukraine and passed the information to his handlers.
In the same year, the occupiers searched Kovalenko’s house and arrested him for six months. They also announced their intention to try him.
He is currently in the temporarily occupied Kherson region.
