On June 17, around 100 people gathered near the Ministry of Interior in Kyiv to commemorate the birthday of Ukrainian activist Kateryna Gandziuk, who was killed with an acid attack in 2018.
On the asphalt in front of the ministry, activists wrote the names of law enforcement officials whom they blame for delays and attempts to sabotage the murder investigation – Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, Deputy Interior Minister Anton Gerashchenko and officers Artur Merikov and Serhiy Kurdilov. The names were crossed out in red. Protesters also burned flares.
Gandziuk was an anti-corruption activist and an aide to the mayor of Kherson, a city more than 500 kilometers south of Kyiv. She was an outspoken critic of local law enforcement and frequently exposed corruption in the region.
On July 28, 2018, a man poured a liter of acid on her as she tried to enter her apartment block, burning almost 40% of her body. After being airlifted to a hospital in Kyiv and undergoing eleven surgeries, she died on Nov. 4, 2018. She was 33.
The police were reluctant to investigate the attack and at first chalked it up to hooliganism.
Activists and Gandziuk’s family conducted their own investigation, retrieving videos from surveillance cameras to make a facial composite and even finding and questioning witnesses.
Vladislav Manger, the head of the Kherson Oblast Council and his associate, Oleksiy Levin, have been charged with organizing the attack.
