Heads of Ukrainian National Police fired because of police inactivity during pro-Russian activists’ attacks on Donbas war veterans
On May 9 in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro there was a fistfight between unknown youths and Donbas war veterans: all of this took place in full view of the police.
The conflict regarding forbidden symbols initially arose with the socialists, and escalated after representatives of the Opposition Bloc (a party created on the basis of former president Yanukovych’s Party of Region) started moving in a procession. Unknown persons dispersed tear gas. Then the escort of Opposition Bloc MP Oleksandr Vilkul joined the fight, all of them wearing identical orange stickers. The news outlet Informator published a video showing how the police initially observed what was taking place, and then sided with the people who were beating veterans of the war in Eastern Ukraine.
On the morning of May 10, Arsen Avakov, head of the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs, signed an order to fire Ihor Repeshko, head of the Dnipropetrovsk police department, Colonel Andrey Bidylo, head of the Dnipro metropolitan police, and the relevant deputies for public safety. Avakov announced that an official investigation has been initiated to further examine the actions of the police. The Internal Security Bureau has also sent a commission to Dnipro.
Borys Filatov, mayor of Dnipro, commended this decision by Avakov. “I don’t want to make myself out to be a prophet by saying ‘I warned you, but you didn’t listen to me!’ But I did warn you, and you did not listen. But that’s not important now. I prefer not to delve into the past, but rather to always look forward. Thank you for the decisive decision,” Borys Filatov wrote on his Facebook page. The mayor also drew the attention of the Internal Security Bureau’s commission to the fact that the encounters on May 9 are only one of many developments which have exposed the inactivity of the Dnipro police. Until now, a number of incidents have not been investigated, including the capture of a municipal executive committee, numerous attacks on municipal police staff, officials and deputies of the city council, damage to communal property by unknown persons, and hooliganism during city council sessions. Nobody has been punished for these episodes.
“The police obstructed municipal workers during the taking down of illegal billboards; they do not get involved in cases of vandalism and ‘cover up’ of illegal business of the resale of scrap metal. The city police have completely failed in both field work and crime prevention,” the mayor of Dnipro stressed.
“You cannot see the events in Dnipro as isolated, unrelated episodes. Dnipro is being subverted. This has been happening for two years already,” Borys Filatov emphasized, adding that while the revanchists remain unpunished, Dnipro will not be insured against the type of situations it saw on May 9.
Towards the evening of May 10, Ukrainian MP Anton Gerashchenko announced that the National Police of the Dnipropetrovsk region will be headed by Vitaliy Hlukhoveria, former rector of the Dnipropetrovsk Institute of internal affairs. His deputy will be senior lieutenant Volodymyr Bohonis, a volunteer, fighter in the Dnipro -1 Battalion, and chief of the patrol police.
On May 10, roughly 100 people came into the regional National Police Office in Dnipro – Donbas war veterans and also civilians. They demanded a proper investigation of the developments of May 9.