Hundreds of protesters clashed with the police on June 15 as a court put prominent nationalist and anti-corruption activist Serhiy Sternenko under house arrest.
In 2018, Sternenko was assaulted and killed the attacker. The Sternenko case has attracted a lot of public attention, with many pro-Ukrainian media and activists defending the incident as genuine self-defense and pro-Russian media portraying him as a murderer. On June 11, he was charged with murder.
The June 15 clashes in front of Kyiv’s Shevchenkivsky District Court resulted in five pro-Sternenko protesters being arrested. They were later released.
Ukrainian media also shared photos of police officers kicking activist Mykola Vyhovsky after throwing him to the ground. It evoked comparisons with the violent behavior of the riot police officers during the EuroMaidan Revolution that overthrew President Viktor Yanukovych on Feb. 22, 2014.
Kyiv Police Chief Andriy Kryshchenko told the Ukrainska Pravda news website that the police officers who beat the activist had been suspended. He said that a probe would be opened against them.
The Holos (Voice) parliamentary faction said one of its lawmakers, Roman Lozynsky, had been beaten by the police. The police did not respond to a request for comment.
“Roman was defending a girl whom the police were trying to arrest,” Holos lawmaker Oleksandra Ustinova said. “They also beat other activists. This is utter police lawlessness.”
The pro-Sternenko protesters also scuffled with journalists from ZIK, a channel owned by a lawmaker with a pro-Russian party led by Viktor Medvedchuk, and a journalist representing blogger Anatoly Shariy. Both ZIK and Shariy are known for their negative coverage of Sternenko.
Andriy Radionov, who was formerly a prosecutor in the Sternenko case, said during the court hearing that the charges against Sternenko were “unfounded, non-objective and biased.” He said that he refused to sign the charges and had formally complained about pressure on him by Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova in the Sternenko case.
As a result, Radionov said he had been kicked out of the group of prosecutors in the Sternenko case. Venediktova and the Prosecutor General’s Office did not respond to a request for comment.
In 2018 Sternenko, a nationalist activist based in Odesa, was assaulted three times. During the third incident he killed the attacker by stabbing him with a knife.
Many activists have been attacked in Odesa in recent years, with some of them blaming the assaults on the city’s mayor, Hennady Trukhanov. The mayor denies the accusations.
Sternenko has consistently opposed Interior Minister Arsen Avakov and taken part in protests against him.
