Two years ago to the day, Luhansk went dark. Power was restored several times for a short time, only to then disappear for a few months. A few days later, mobile and landline communications were down for good. The long “Luhansk night” had started. Ukrainian soldiers approached the city, but could not take it. Two years later, the man who did everything in order to open the door to the enemy, named Oleksandr Yefremov, was arrested at the Kyiv Boryspil Airport as he tried to flee the country for the “safe haven” of Austria. The Prosecutor General’s Office suspects the former head of the Party of Regions’ faction of misappropriation through the abuse of authority of property belonging to Luhanskvuhillia concern (Pt. 5 of Art. 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), committing intentional actions aiming at change of the territorial borders of Ukraine, which have led to deaths and had other severe consequences (Pt. 3 of Art. 110 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), as well as providing organizational and other support for the creation of the ‘Luhansk People’s Republic’ terrorist organization (Pt. 1 of Art. 258-3 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). At a press conference held on the day of Yefremov’s arrest, Yurii Lutsenko told the media that the Prosecutor General’s Office would request the court to detain him for two months, and stressed that the charges did not allow for other preventive measures, such as bail or house arrest.
It is worth mentioning that Yefremov was arrested before, in February 2015, but the charges were such that his legal defense team could easily disprove them. That was exactly what happened. Recently they even removed Yefremov’s ankle monitor and reversed the decision to charge him. And here he goes again, arrested just as a heavily edited video hit the Internet, showing Yefremov allegedly confessing to the fact that he was sponsoring the separatists. Indeed, this fact has long been an open secret. The only issue was getting evidence of it.
AT THE AUGUST 1 COURT HEARING WHICH DEALT WITH THE PREVENTIVE MEASURE FOR OLEKSANDR YEFREMOV, THE PRESIDING JUDGE WAS VOLODYMYR KARABAN. THE MEDIA CLAIM HE ONCE BLOCKED A MOTION TO SEIZE BANK ACCOUNTS BELONGING TO THE WIFE OF HIS COLLEAGUE AND PARTICIPATED IN TRIALS OF DEMOCRATIC ACTIVISTS. AS EARLY AS 2007, DURING VIKTOR YUSHCHENKO’S PRESIDENCY, KARABAN FOUND HIMSELF ON THE LIST OF JUDGES WHO VIOLATED THEIR OATHS, BUT WAS NEVER BROUGHT TO JUSTICE / Photo by Artem SLIPACHUK, The Day
“Crimes against the statehood are subject to no statute of limitations,” former mayor of Luhansk and former head of the Luhansk Regional State Administration Oleksii Danylov commented for The Day. “I would like to draw the attention of Lutsenko to our history, namely November 26, 2004, when a meeting of the Luhansk Regional Council took the unprecedented decision to secede the region from Ukraine and appealed to Vladimir Putin. I believe that all councilors who supported that decision must be brought to justice. Although Yefremov was not a deputy of the oblast council but headed the Luhansk Oblast State Administration, he, in fact, influenced all the processes in the oblast. I recall that the decision was taken before the Sievierodonetsk ‘congress’ in which Yefremov took part as well. We should recall that Leonid Kuchma was then the president, and he did nothing to punish the perpetrators. Moreover, Yefremov was appointed to govern Luhansk by Kuchma in exchange for support in the region. In this way, they built a dictatorship, resulting in the surrender of national interests and the current war. Therefore, I believe that Yefremov’s arrest will change nothing. All those who built the vicious system, starting with Kuchma, should be in the dock with him. Meanwhile, Kuchma is still immune from any legal action.”
Thus, all-encompassing corruption became a way of getting key government figures to submit and a stage of occupation. One could say that the “Luhansk night” which came with the arrival of Russian troops in the Donbas began not in 2014, but already in the late 1990s. Consistency, thoroughness, and comprehensive objectivity should be the basis of the Yefremov trial, instead of “revolutionary expediency” accompanied by songs and slogans, much-shouted near the Pechersky District Court building at Khreshchatyk Street on August 1.
