Editor’s note: Every week Kyiv Post journalist Oleg Sukhov picks a winner and loser in Ukraine’s drive to transform itself into a rule-of-law, European-style democracy.
Reformer of the week – Oleksiy Donsky
Oleksiy Donsky, an outspoken prosecutor with a reputation for honesty, was fired as the head of the prosecution unit in charge of cases into the killings of more than 100 people in the EuroMaidan Revolution that ended Viktor Yanukovych’s presidency.
Donsky’s unit prosecuted cases investigated by the investigation unit of Sergii Gorbatuk.
Donsky and Gorbatuk told the Kyiv Post on Aug. 13 that Donsky had been effectively fired after Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko and his deputy Serhiy Kiz replaced Donsky’s unit with a new one, headed by Volodymyr Mysyak.
Mysyak is a protégé of Kiz and used to be his deputy.
Before 2018, Donsky headed the prosecution unit of the department headed by Gorbatuk. However, Lutsenko merged Donsky’s unit into a department headed by Kiz last year.
Gorbatuk argued then that the splitting of his department was due to Lutsenko’s dissatisfaction with efforts by Gorbatuk and Donsky to prevent political and corrupt bargains with associates of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych. The Prosecutor General’s Office denied the accusations.
Anti-reformer of the week – Serhiy Kiz
Deputy Prosecutor General Serhiy Kiz and his boss, Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko, have been accused by their subordinates and civil society activists of blocking investigations into crimes, including mass murder, committed during the EuroMaidan Revolution.
The Prosecutor General’s Office is set to lose its investigative functions in November and will be able only to prosecute, not investigate, cases from the revolution that ousted President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014.
Sergii Gorbatuk, head of the EuroMaidan investigation unit, and Oleksiy Donsky, head of the EuroMaidan prosecution unit, have proposed merging their units into a single prosecution department that will oversee State Investigation Bureau investigators working on EuroMaidan cases. Gorbatuk, Donsky or some other experienced and respectable officials involved in EuroMaidan cases were expected to head the new department.
However, this plan was sabotaged by Lutsenko and Kiz, Donsky and Gorbatuk told the Kyiv Post on Aug. 13. Lutsenko denied the accusations, in turn accusing Gorbatuk of sabotaging EuroMaidan cases, while Kiz did not respond to a request for comment.
Donsky’s prosecution unit was replaced with a new unit headed by Volodymyr Mysyak, a former deputy of Kiz, and most of Gorbatuk’s investigators were not transferred to the new prosecution unit, Donsky and Gorbatuk said.
The new unit will report directly to Kiz. Gorbatuk says this will allow Lutsenko and Kiz to influence and block EuroMaidan investigations.
Moreover, Lutsenko and Kiz liquidated the research unit of Gorbatuk’s deparment, further emasculating it, according to Gorbatuk.
The families of murdered EuroMaidan protesters criticized the restructuring in a statement on Aug. 15, saying that it was tantamount to the collapse of EuroMaidan investigations.
