Around 30 hired thugs, known in Ukraine as “titushki,” late on Nov. 28 assaulted Anatoly Grytsenko, a presidential candidate and head of the Civil Position party, in Odesa.
The attack took place as Grytsenko was going to the office of Shark Radio for a broadcast.
Several of Grytsenko’s supporters were heavily beaten and injured. The police opened a hooliganism investigation.
Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko said he was outraged with the police’s failure to arrest the attackers, “given the martial law and the complicated political situation in the country.”
Martial law was introduced by President Petro Poroshenko and parliament on Nov. 26, following a naval Russian attack in the Azov Sea. It covers 10 Ukrainian oblasts, including the Odesa Oblast.
Odesa is no stranger to violence by paid thugs. At least 14 activists have been attacked this year in the city. Most of them have criticized Odesa Mayor Hennady Trukhanov and his municipal administration, and seven of them blame him for the attacks.
“Trukhanov is thanking Poroshenko for his guarantees of immunity,” Vitaliy Shabunin, head of the executive board of the Anti-Corruption Action Center, a Kyiv-based watchdog, said commenting on the attack.
Shabunin’s opinion is that Trukhanov has a free hand to assault activists and opposition politicians due to a good relationship with Poroshenko.
The mayor has stayed afloat despite having been charged with corruption and despite official Russian government information that he is a citizen of Russia. He has denied having Russian citizenship and being involved in corruption.
Trukhanov, who previously denied involvement in the attacks on activists, did not respond to a request for comment.
Trukhanov, who has run the city since 2015, is an ally of shady businessmen Alexander Angert and Vladimir Galanternik. Trukhanov admits to being friends with Angert and Galanternik, but has repeatedly denied having any links to corruption or criminality.
However, an Italian police dossier from 1998 identifies Trukhanov and Angert as members of a mafia gang. It was published by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, a Kyiv Post partner, in 2016.
There have been at least 93 violent attacks on activists and journalists since the EuroMaidan Revolution nationwide, including at least six attempted murders and at least 10 murders.
