Vitaliy Oleshko, a social activist and retired combat veteran of the Donbas war, was shot and killed on July 31 in the coastal city of Berdyansk in the Zaporizhya Oblast some 600 kilometers southeast of Kyiv.
According to local police, the murder took place at 12.30 local time, when an unidentified person shot the 43-year-old Oleshko in the backyard of his house and then fled the crime scene.
Andriy Madzharov, another activist who witnessed the deadly attack, said while streaming live video on his Facebook page that the murderer had a beard and that he had fired two shots from a hunting rifle into Oleshko’s back, right in front of his wife.
Shortly following the incident, the local police launched an amber alert operation.
Early on Aug. 1, law enforcers reported they had arrested five persons overnight.
“The police stopped a car with four suspects in the town of Vasylivka (some 140 kilometers northwest of Berdyansk.) Another plotter was discovered and detained in Berdyansk,” the report reads.
Anton Gerashenko, an adviser to Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, wrote on his Facebook page early on Aug. 1 that the suspects changed their vehicle as they fled the city to avoid arrest.
“However, the murderer did not hit on the idea of shaving off his beard, which was actually mentioned in operational briefings for all police posts as a distinctive feature,” Gerashenko said.
Police did not name any of the detained suspects.
On the evening of July 31, shortly following the arrest, journalist Yuriy Butusov published a photo of the alleged murderer.
“Andriy Madzharov, the witness of Oleshko’s murder, along with other witnesses, recognized the killer,” Butusov wrote.
“The murderer was not alone – when (Oleshko) was entering the yard, the killer approached him and shot him in his back, even though there were other people there,” the journalist later added on his next Facebook post.
“He managed to flee the scene in a car that was waiting for him. But they soon abandoned the vehicle not far from the scene. Obviously they had prepared another one.”
Later, the suspected murderer was named as Artem Matiushyn, a former fighter of the Tornado Battalion, a Ukrainian volunteer combat formation dissolved by Ukraine’s Interior Ministry following numerous accusations of inflicting brutal atrocities in the war zone of Donbas.
Mykola Zukur, a former deputy company commander with the Tornado Battalion, confirmed that the photo showed Matiushyn.
In a Facebook post late on July 31, Zukur wrote that in 2015 Matiushyn and two other fighters had left the Tornado base in the town of Boyarka with their personal weapons, and had gone to serve in the Azov Regiment.
Azov’s press service, however, strongly denied that Matiushyn had ever served in the regiment.
“The persons claimed as being involved in the murder have never had any connections with our formation,” Azov’s spokeswoman Marianna Hoimeriki told the Kyiv Post.
Oleshko was a retired Donbas Battalion veteran going by the nom de guerre of Sarmat. In 2014, he fought in the battle of Ilovaisk and was taken prisoner by Russian-led forces.
For his military service, Oleshko was decorated with the 3rd Class Order of Courage.
According to military affairs blogger Semen Kabakaev, Oleshko had numerous conflicts with Oleksandr Ponomarev, a local businessman and lawmaker from the 18-seat People’s Will parliamentary faction.
Just hours before his death on July 31, Oleshko delivered a live broadcast on Facebook, criticizing the city authorities for failing to ensure proper trash collection, Kabakaev said.
“When Sarmat returned from war, he tussled with the local authorities and… Ponomarev, who effectively controls Berdyansk,” Kabakaev wrote on his Facebook page as he reported of Oleshko’s murder on July 31.
“(Oleshko) struggled for a decent and comfortable life for everyone in Berdyansk. He wanted the corruption to be eradicated, and did all he could to do that.”
As of Aug. 1 noon, Ponomarev had not reacted to Kabakaev’s allegations.
