Law enforcement agencies cover up brutal murder in military unit in Chernihiv region – human rights activists’ statement

In military units of Dnipropetrovsk and Chernihiv regions, brutal murders of servicemen occurred. This is stated by the Ukrainian Helsinki Union for Human Rights. However, law enforcement agencies refuse to conduct proper investigations in order to punish the perpetrators. Is the state ignoring crimes against humanity and peace becoming the norm today?

Relatives of the deceased soldiers have turned to the Ukrainian Helsinki Union for Human Rights for help, as law enforcement agencies cynically refuse to properly investigate the brutal murders committed against servicemen.

On the day of his death, a soldier of the 13th Chernihiv Separate Motorized Infantry Battalion Pavlo

(name changed)

was on duty at one of the checkpoints in the village of Klishchiivka, Donetsk region. There he was mortally wounded by a shot in the neck. According to eyewitnesses, it was not the enemy who fired, but a deputy from the same battalion.

The next day, June 30, the young man died from a serious wound. The Prosecutor’s Office of the Zhovtnevy District of the Dnipropetrovsk Region gave instructions on the investigative actions that needed to be taken by the investigative department of the police. However, almost a month has passed since the day of the murder and no steps have been taken to investigate the case. Moreover, the deputy commander of the battalion, who, according to eyewitnesses, shot the young man, has not yet been detained. And this, according to Volodymyr Pletenko, a lawyer at the Dnipropetrovsk Public Reception Center of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, is a gross violation, since if the deputy commander committed a crime, then, remaining at large, he can hinder the investigation: threaten witnesses, destroy all evidence of his guilt.

Another brutal murder was committed on the territory of the 93rd Mechanized Brigade in the village of Cherkaske, Dnipropetrovsk region. It was here that the unconscious body of soldier Mykola was found, tied at the hands and feet

(name changed)

. The reasons and circumstances of the murder have not yet been clarified. The leadership of the military unit has not yet been held accountable for violating the statutory rules of internal service. The military prosecutor’s office did not intervene during the investigation, although the crime was committed on the territory of the military unit. In June 2015, the criminal case into the murder of the soldier was closed altogether, so to speak, due to the absence of criminal offenses.

Lawyers from the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union helped the relatives of both victims file a petition to be granted victim status in criminal proceedings and to obtain case materials in order to have the opportunity to influence its course.

Currently, the lawyers are preparing a complaint to the Prosecutor General of Ukraine regarding the negligent attitude of the military prosecutor’s office of the Dnipropetrovsk garrison in the case of the murder of Mykola and a complaint to the Dnipropetrovsk prosecutor’s office regarding the inaction of the investigator in the case of the deceased Pavlo.

Lawyer Volodymyr Pletenko comments on the situation as follows:

“One can only wonder how such a thing can happen at regime facilities, where strict discipline and order should reign. In the case of a soldier whose body was found with his hands and feet tied and his mouth gagged, the investigator wrote in the ruling that “the deceased died of his own accord.” By the way, the investigative department of the Novomoskovsk police made many moves (they even brought a dog). However, the most important thing, that is, to establish the identity of those who tied the deceased, was never done. It seems strange that on the territory of a closed facility, where soldiers are on duty around the clock, the people who committed the crime were not found. The Military Prosecutor’s Office of the Dnipropetrovsk Garrison categorically refuses to see the criminal negligence of the command of the 93rd brigade and to bring it to criminal responsibility.

Regarding the murder of a soldier of the 13th Chernihiv Motorized Infantry Battalion, unfortunately, another young man’s life was lost, and the criminal is still at large. Almost immediately after the boy’s death, the prosecutor’s office of the Zhovtnevy district of Dnipropetrovsk instructed the Zhovtnevy police department to conduct investigative actions. But there is still only a hura: no witnesses have been interviewed, no ballistics examination has been ordered. It seems that our crime fighters are not acting according to the laws of Ukraine, but are adhering to some other laws that only they understand, such as “circular responsibility” or “war will erase everything.”