Violent protests against alleged police brutality erupted late on Jan. 4 in the city of Kakhovka in Kherson Oblast in what some saw as a deja vu of similar police-related unrest under ex-presidents Viktor Yanukovych and Petro Poroshenko.
The protests started in Kakhovka, 600 kilometers south of Kyiv, after a former police officer allegedly murdered local Volodymyr Chebukin on Jan. 1. The main eyewitness to the murder was a police officer acquainted with the suspect.
The subsequent unrest highlights what many see as Interior Minister Arsen Avakov‘s ongoing failure to reform police into trusted law enforcers.
According to Avakov’s critics, the police are as lawless and unaccountable as before the EuroMaidan Revolution that removed President Viktor Yanukovych from power on Feb. 22, 2014. Avakov has also been accused of failing to investigate high-profile cases and corruption. Avakov denies these claims.
Protesters burn tires in front of the police headquarters in Kakhovka on Jan. 4.
Dmytro Bulakh, head of the Kharkiv Anti-Corruption Center, in turn, thinks the police brutality is now the responsibility not only of Avakov but also of President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“(Zelensky) vouched for the minister and assumed all responsibility,” Bulakh wrote on Facebook. “Without radical change, such cases will be repeated regularly.”
According to the investigators, the alleged murder of Chebukin was a result of the conflict that started after Chebukin came to the apartment of the suspect, who lives with Chebukin’s ex-wife. Chebukin allegedly fired a non-lethal weapon at the suspect, who in turn shot Chebukin seven times with a carbine.
Later, Chebukin died as a result of his wounds. On Jan. 3, a Kakhovka court arrested the alleged murderer for two months.
The police opened a murder attempt investigation against the murder suspect, while the State Investigation Bureau has opened an abuse of power investigation against the police officer who witnessed the murder.
However, Chebukin’s relatives and protesters in Kakhovka have accused police of covering up for the suspect. They also claim that the witness of the murder who currently serves in the police may have taken part in the murder and that the surveillance cameras have disappeared from the site.
The police have denied the accusations of wrongdoing.
On Jan. 4, dozens of demonstrators gathered in front of the Kakhovka police headquarters. They burned tires and threw smoke bombs, firecrackers and rocks at the police building.
Tiers burn in front of the police department in protest against police brutality in Ukrainian southern city Kakhovka on Jan. 4, after a former police officer allegedly murdered Volodymyr Chebukin, a resident of the city, on Jan. 1. (kn.ks.ua)
The Kakhovka events are reminiscent of uprisings against police brutality in recent years.
In 2013, four police officers in Vradiivka raped and beat local resident Iryna Krashkova, breaking her skull. After a lack of reaction from the authorities and a court’s refusal to arrest the suspects, locals stormed the police headquarters, and rallies against police violence in Vradiivka were held throughout Ukraine.
Then in 2016, the wife of Oleksandr Tsukerman in the town of Kryve Ozero in Mykolayiv Oblast called the police after a quarrel with her husband, complaining about alleged violence on his part. According to eyewitness testimony, six police officers arrived and beat Tsukerman with batons. After that, one of the officers shot Tsukerman four times with rimfire ammunition into his heart and lungs and killed him.
Subsequently, local residents protested against the police’s actions, tried to storm the police headquarters and burned tires.
Protesters gather in front of the police headquarters in Kakhovka on Jan. 4.
