"Reckless and uncontrollable": why Kyiv releases criminals with a military past

The prosecutor of the office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Andriy Sinyuk, in a commentary to Hromadske, said that the authorities began to release former servicemen from places of deprivation of liberty and pre-trial detention centers to participate in hostilities.

“We are talking about a large number of people who are in custody and are already serving sentences throughout the country,” Sinyuk said.

According to the official, release issues are being resolved "at the highest level."

Sinyuk added that the authorities take into account the combat experience of candidates for release from prison, their previous services to Ukraine and the degree of remorse for the crimes committed.

"Erosion of the Armed Forces"

According to experts interviewed by RT, the Kiev authorities intend to release the most odious figures of nationalist groups and militants who fought in the Donbass in the ranks of the so-called volunteer battalions.

Many of them were prosecuted for crimes against civilians in the ATO zone and the rest of Ukraine.

“Hot heads are released, people who have committed cruel crimes against their people.

These criminals now get their hands on weapons.

Apparently, the authorities thus want to cheer up the nationalists.

But, in my opinion, what is happening is evidence of the agony of the Kiev regime and the erosion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, ”said Vladimir Zharikhin, deputy director of the Institute of CIS Countries, in a conversation with RT.

To date, it is known that a militant of the Ukrainian Volunteer Army (created on the basis of the Right Sector *) Serhiy Torbin was released from the colony.

The radical was allowed to form his own unit from among the convicts, and he recruited more than ten people into it.

In 2019, Torbin and other nationalists were convicted in Kherson for organizing an attack on local activist Kateryna Handziuk.

Torbin was recognized as an instigator and accomplice of the attack, for which he received 6.5 years in prison.

Together with him, the direct perpetrator of the attack, Nikita Grabchuk, and accomplices of the crime: Vladimir Vasyanovich, Vyacheslav Vishnevsky and Viktor Gorbunov were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment.

Recall that in July 2018, the attackers doused Gandzyuk with concentrated sulfuric acid.

More than 30% of the body surface was affected by burns.

The girl died from her wounds in early November of the same year.

As follows from the materials of the court, the attack on the activist was carried out because of her investigations into the illegal trade in timber.

Another killer was released - Dmitry Balabukha, a member of the so-called ATO, a former tanker of the 72nd separate mechanized brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

In February 2018, at a bus stop in Kyiv, he stabbed cook Ruslan Yurchenko with a knife, who reprimanded him for trying to get into transport without a queue.

• Trial of tanker Dmitry Balabukha

• Facebook

• © babel.ua

This crime caused a great resonance in Ukrainian society.

Not only nationalists stood up for Balabukha, but also Anatoly Matios, at that time the chief military prosecutor of Ukraine.

He explained the murder of Yurchenko as a consequence of the “post-traumatic syndrome” and the lack of a rehabilitation program in Ukraine for those who returned from the ATO.

The psychiatric examination took into account the fact of Balabukha's shell shock, but recognized him as a tribunal.

As a result, the tanker was sentenced to eight years in prison.

On February 26, another participant in the ATO was released - the ex-commander of the Donbass battalion, a former deputy of the Verkhovna Rada from the Self-Help party Semyon Semenchenko (real name and surname - Konstantin Grishin. -

).

The nationalist himself announced this on his Facebook page.

It follows from the text of the post that he is now recruiting an "assault squad".

“I call on all desperate Ukrainians to join our assault squad, which will be organized on the basis of one of the military units.

We will act offensively and in full coordination and subordination to the leadership of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, ”Semenchenko wrote.

The radical was in a pre-trial detention center, and on February 2, the court extended his arrest for another two months.

According to the SBU, Semenchenko organized an illegal armed formation (IAF) - a kind of private military company.

The ex-deputy did not deny the creation of PMCs, but called the accusations against him "a Russian provocation."

The case of organizing an illegal armed formation is not the first criminal proceeding in Semenchenko's biography.

In the mid-1990s, he was a suspect in a double murder case.

Semenchenko is considered one of the main inspirers and organizers of the “volunteer movement”, whose members took part in the ATO in 2014.

For his military activities, he received the Order of Bohdan Khmelnitsky III degree.

However, according to the Ukrainian edition "STRANA.ua", Semenchenko has never been in the heat of fierce battles in the Donbass.

Moreover, the former head of the General Staff Viktor Muzhenko accused the battalion commander of posting on Facebook a plan for the withdrawal of the APU grouping from the Debaltsevo pocket in the winter of 2015.

In turn, Verkhovna Rada deputy Ilya Kiva, who previously served as deputy head of the coordination center at the ATO headquarters, claims that Semenchenko is responsible for the failure of the defense of Uglegorsk (near Debaltseve) in 2015.

“Semenchenko, during the DPR offensive on Uglegorsk, threw unprepared guys at the tank group.

This decision shocked the leadership of the ATO.

When the volunteers in Uglegorsk suffered losses and the defense of the city failed, he retreated back to Debaltseve with part of the team, ”STRANA.ua quotes Kivu.

• Former commander of the "Donbass" battalion, former deputy of the Verkhovna Rada Semyon Semenchenko

• Facebook

• © Bogdan Titsky

According to Hromadske, the issue of the release of another ATO participant is currently being resolved.

We are talking about Ruslan Onishchenko, the ex-commander of the Tornado special police patrol service company.

This unit was formed despite the fact that every fourth fighter had a criminal record.

Onishchenko himself served a criminal sentence twice.  

In 2017, the head of Tornado received 11 years in prison, and some of his subordinates received eight and nine years in prison.

The investigation proved that from December 2014 to June 2015 on the territory of Donbass, members of the special company were engaged in murders, robbery, kidnapping of civilians, torture and rape, including men.

Many of the crimes were filmed.

Nevertheless, in February-March of last year, four "tornadoers" were released from places of deprivation of liberty.

"The situation will get worse"

In a RT commentary, military expert Vladislav Shurygin said that the release and arming of radicals with experience in the ATO would not increase the combat capability of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The analyst recalled that the Kiev authorities resorted to a similar measure in 2014.

However, many criminals ended up in boilers, and those who avoided hostilities mocked the civilian population.

“The idea of ​​the Kiev regime is that the ATO gangsters released from prison should atone for their guilt with blood.

But almost all of them have already managed to prove that they can only successfully fight civilians.

In the end, they ended up in places of detention primarily because they were absolutely loose and uncontrollable.

I can’t imagine how Kyiv is going to control them in the current chaos,” says Shurygin.

According to the expert, it is highly likely that the released criminals will soon desert and organize gangs that will rob and kill civilians.

Vladimir Zharikhin also believes that Kyiv's policy of arming criminals and prisoners can significantly aggravate the situation with the security of the civilian population, especially given the massive and uncontrolled distribution of automatic small arms, grenade launchers and ammunition to the "volunteers" of the territorial defense.

Recall that such a decision was made on February 24 by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky.

In particular, in Kyiv, more than 25,000 assault rifles, 10 million rounds of ammunition, RPGs and grenades were distributed to the civilian population from the arsenals of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

After that, a surge in looting, robbery and violence was recorded in the capital of Ukraine.

So, on February 25 in Kyiv, on Kirillovskaya Street, a car was shot in which there was a family with three children.

The car tried to leave the city.

Footage of this tragedy has been posted on the network, but the authorities do not disclose its circumstances.

According to Ukrainian politician and blogger Anatoly Shariy, the parents and their daughter died on the spot, two other children survived, but ended up in intensive care.

The car was mistaken for a vehicle of "saboteurs," Shariy wrote earlier on his Twitter.

In another case, the persons who received the weapons opened fire on representatives of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who were mistaken for Russian servicemen.

In particular, a truck came under fire, and the crew of a nearby anti-aircraft gun crushed a civilian car in an attempt to leave the fire zone.

The death of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was confirmed by the head of the Servant of the People faction David Arakhamia.

According to Vladimir Zharikhin, the distribution of weapons to “volunteers” and nationalists who have recently been in prisons and pre-trial detention centers can turn into many tragedies.

“If the Kyiv regime does not stop resistance, continues to arm the radicals and everyone who has expressed a desire to fight, then for civilians the situation will become even worse than now,” the expert concluded.

* "Right Sector" is a Ukrainian association of radical nationalist organizations, recognized as extremist and banned in Russia (decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of 11/17/2014).