Officers of Ukraine’s SBU security service have freed Oleksiy Honcharenko, a 36-year-old lawmaker of the Bloc of Petro Poroshenko faction in parliament who was reported missing earlier on Feb. 23.
According to prosecutor of Odesa Oblast Oleh Zhuchenko, Honcharenko had participated in a sting operation to catch three suspects who had threatened to blind the deputy and break his knee-caps.
“Now he’s safe and testifying as a victim (of a crime),” said Zhuchenko, adding that the police had seized a hammer and a quantity of acid.
The suspects had been planning the kidnapping of Honcharenko for long time, the prosecutor said during a briefing.
“Those who ordered the kidnapping wanted to harm (Honcharenko), but as they were afraid and did not have the skills to abduct him themselves, they started to look for executors of kidnapping and delivery,” Zhuchenko said. “We found out about it.”
Zhuchenko added that it was very “symbolic” of the three suspects to carry out their plan today, on Feb. 23, as it is a holiday in Russia called Defender of the Fatherland Day.
Honcharenko had earlier been reported kidnapped in Odesa, and Odesa Oblast Prosecutors’ Office spokesperson Inna Verba confirmed to the Kyiv Post.
Before that, in the morning, deputy for presidential Bloc of Petro Poroshenko faction Oleksandr Bryhynets wrote on Facebook that Honacharenko had left Kyiv for Odesa on Feb. 22 “for an urgent meeting.”
“Yesterday he said it was an important public meeting,” Bryhynets wrote. “I am sure this is a political crime, and I believe our security forces will not allow it to go unsolved.”
After that, advisor to the SBU security service chief Yuriy Tandit said that the SBU had started a special investigation.
“Special actions are being taken to bring Honcharenko back to his relatives and job,” Tandit said live on Ukrainian news channel 112.
Earlier in February, Honcharenko vandalized a monument to the Berlin Wall near the German Embassy in Kyiv.
He used a can of red spray paint to write “nein” (“no” in German) on the fragment of the wall that made up the monument. It was a reaction to German Ambassador Ernst Reichel’s suggestion that local elections be held in eastern Ukraine, despite the presence of Russian troops there.
Honcharenko, although young, is a seasoned politician.
The deputy entered politics in 2001 with the pro-Russian Soyuz (Union) political party. But in 2005 he switched to former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s Party of Regions.
Honcharenko often took pro-Russian positions, but after the EuroMaidan Revolution in 2014, he quit the Party of Regions and joined Poroshenko’s party.
Kyiv Post staff writer Denys Krasnikov can be reached at [email protected]
