Police have in recent days arrested three Ukrainian veterans of Russia’s war against Ukraine who participated in protests against the Ukrainian authorities.
The three veterans, Oleksandr Novikov, Anatoly Vynohrodsky and Leonid Lytvynenko, are under investigation in two criminal cases. They were among the co-organizers of the current protest tent camp in front of the Verkhovna Rada and are members of the Liberation movement, led by Samopomich party lawmakers Semen Semenchenko and Yegor Sobolev.
The three veterans were among the protesters who took part in rallies outside parliament in October to November to demand that lawmakers be stripped of their immunity from prosecution, that an anti-corruption court be created, and for a fairer election law to be passed.
They also called for a law establishing procedures for impeaching the president.
Semenchenko and Sobolev argue that the veterans were arrested because of their political activities.
Novikov, who goes by the nom-de-guerre Hummer and is a veteran of the volunteer Donbas Battalion, was arrested on Nov. 24. Vynohrodsky, who has the nom-de-guerre Hal and is a former commander of the Donbas Battalion, and Lytvynenko, who has the nom-de-guerre Bek and is a veteran of the volunteer OUN Battalion, were arrested on Nov. 26.
Novikov is accused of kidnapping a fellow Donbas volunteer fighter – a charge that he denies. A Mariupol court on Nov. 26 ruled that Novikov be held in custody for two months without the right to bail.
Vynohrodsky and Lytvynenko are accused of attacking a security guard and robbery during a standoff between alleged corporate raiders and local residents over land rights in Kyrovohrad Oblast earlier this year.
Vynohrodsky and Lytvynenko deny the accusations. Semenchenko said they had been helping farmers in a conflict with corporate raiders and did not rob or attack anyone.
A Mariupol court on Nov. 27 placed Lytvynenko and Vynohrodsky in custody for two months. The Lytvynenko, Vynohrodsky and Novikov hearings were closed for the public in what the veterans’ supporters saw as an effort to hide violations of the law during their arrests.
Semenchenko argued that the authorities committed numerous procedural violations in Novikov’s case, including failure to file a notice of suspicion within 24 hours after the arrest and closing the hearing for the public without any justification.
“What’s going on in Mariupol (with the three war veterans) is not different from what’s going on in Crimea, Luhansk and Donetsk (with Ukrainian political prisoners),” Sobolev said at a rally on Nov. 27.
Donetsk Oblast police on Nov. 25 also searched an apartment rented by Donbas Battalion medics.
The searches were made as part of a case in which investigators claim that Donbas is an organized crime group. Semenchenko dismissed the charges as trumped-up and fabricated, saying that the investigators claim that the mere fact of Donbas veterans holding protests and legally owning weapons is considered by investigators as evidence of organized crime.
The cases against the war veterans are being handled by Donetsk Oblast police and Mariupol courts despite the fact that their alleged wrongdoings took place in other regions. Semenchenko and Sobolev attributed this to Donetsk Oblast officials’ alleged readiness to fulfill illegal orders and their alleged pro-Russian and pro-separatist leanings.
Vyacheslav Abroskin, head of Donetsk Oblast police and a deputy chief of the National Police, has been accused of links to Russian occupation authorities in Crimea. According to an alleged Security Service of Ukraine document published in March by Anton Shevtsov, an ex-police chief and a suspect in a treason case, Shevstov has received intelligence information from Abroskin in the interests of Russian-backed Crimean separatist Sergei Aksyonov — charges that Abroskin denies.
The arrests and searches started after veterans of Donbas and other volunteer battalions last week started a blockade of trucks that import diesel fuel supplied through a pipeline from Russia to the city of Novohrad Volynsky in Zhytomyr Oblast. Lytvynenko was arrested when he was participating in the blockade in Novohrad Volynsky.
The Ukrainian part of the pipeline used to be owned by Russia’s Transneft and was acquired by firms controlled by pro-Russian politician Viktor Medvedchuk in 2016, according to the Nashi Hroshi investigative show. The veterans argue that the fuel supplies are an illegal and corrupt smuggling scheme.
Semenchenko and lawmaker Yuriy Derevyanko have accused both Mevdedchuk and President Petro Poroshenko of participating in the scheme. Medvedchuk and Poroshenko deny the accusations.
In October, the veterans protesting in front of the Verkhovna Rada announced they would boycott Poroshenko’s legal businesses and blockade businesses involved in his alleged corruption schemes.
Meanwhile, Vano Nadiradze, another war veteran based at the protest camp in front of the Verkhovna Rada, was deported to Georgia by the Security Service of Ukraine, National Police, State Migration Service and State Border Guard on Nov. 17. No court warrant for the deportation was presented, and his deportation was explicitly banned by a Ukrainian court.
Nadiradze is a veteran of the Georgian Legion and Wolves of Georgia volunteer units, which fought against Russian troops in the Donbas, and a top commander of Semenchenko’s Donbas Domestic Corps.
Six other Georgian associates of ex-Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, a co-organizer of the protests near the Verkhovna Rada, were deported to their homeland on Nov. 17 and Oct. 21 in what they say was an illegal operation without due process or any court warrants. Several of them say they were beaten.
The authorities deny accusations of wrongdoing.
The National Agency for Preventing Corruption on Nov. 24 also initiated a check of Semenchenko’s asset declaration in what he saw as part of the authorities’ crackdown on the opposition.
