Dnipropetrovsk – It appears that Ukraine’s exclusion from the category of Free Countries in the Freedom House ranking is the last thing to worry the Ukrainian regime, which recently cracked down on Tryzub, a Ukraine-wide nationalist organization, arresting its members en masse. A total of 15 people ended up behind bars, and their whereabouts and fate remained unknown for several days. Rostyslav Vinar, a surgeon from Dniprodzerzhynsk and Tryzub veteran, was among them.
The interrogators tried to elicit detailed information about Tryzub, his meeting with Slava Stetsko, and his attitude towards Stalin. Alas, the methods of our law enforcers sadly resemble those of the Soviet KGB. A question suggests itself: is it due to the specific mentality of our police officers or does someone impose such methods on them?
What is clear, however, is that the morbid atmosphere in the country is man-made. The regime deliberately divides society, making it turn to radicalism, and thus distracting it from grave social and economic problems. Unfortunately, no one cares to think about the results.
The Day discussed the police methods and Tryzub’s activities with Rostyslav VINAR.
After the explosion in Zaporizhia Ukrainian media reported that some members of Tryzub were detained, and later wrote about their disappearance. What was actually going on?
“I had a New Year’s party with my neighbors in Dniprodzerzhynsk, and on the very first night of the New Year I was already operating on my patients. On January 5 I went to see my mother in Lviv — the anniversary of my father’s death was approaching. Christmas Eve was a family reunion, with my elder son, my brother, and my mother.
“Later, a friend from Ternopil called and invited me to come over for Christmas, so the next morning I got on a bus and left. The visit took the whole day. I also met fellow Tryzub members Andrii Stempytsky and Dmytro Yarosh. In the evening we took a car and went to one of the villages in Ivano-Frankivsk oblast, where we put up for the night. On the next day I was going to come back to my mother’s place, but at the bus stop I was detained by some plainclothes men. By the way, they were rather rough.”
Did they introduce themselves?
“No one produced any IDs. They pushed me face down in the slush and handcuffed me. Frankly, I had never had any such experience with the police. It all happened in a flash, I only heard someone say, ‘Hold the bag, he’s got a gun there!’
“They brought me to the police station in Rohatyn, but failed to find anything in my bag except a wallet and some toiletries. I explained to them who I was and where I had been going, and asked if I could go free, but they did not let me. Later, they delivered three more fellow Tryzub members. They put on my head something like an opaque stocking or cap. Someone yelled, ‘Head down, double-quick, march!’ – and I was pushed into a patrol wagon.
“They brought me to the oblast directory of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Ivano-Frankivsk. Then they showed me the investigator’s decree, from which I understood that I had been detained on suspicion of arson of Yanukovych’s campaign headquarters in Halych, more than a year ago, during the presidential election campaign.
“I said that it was total nonsense, since I had never been to Halych, whereas on December 20, 2009, I was in Lviv, at my father’s deathbed, which can be proven by my relatives. Despite it all, I heard that they had the right to detain me for 72 hours, that is three days. They brought me to a detention center in Nadvirna and put me in one cell with murderers and muggers.
“Normally I’m not finicky, but the food there, a kind of pea soup, was just not eatable. And then, besides the harsh conditions, the moral atmosphere was oppressive: in the very morning what you heard was ‘face to the wall, hands behind your back, do not turn round, do not look, keep your head down.’ I was also upset to think that my 73-year-old mother did not know where I was. They promised me to inform her, but never did. And they confiscated the cell phones.”
I don’t see what it all has to do with the explosion in Zaporizhia.
“The next day I met two investigators from the Zaporizhia oblast directory of the SBU, who had arrived in Ivano-Frankivsk. Their manners were horrible, they spoke to me as if I were a criminal, asked me what my moniker was, but then they eased down — maybe when they heard that I’m a surgeon.
“I understood from their questions that they were interested in the Tryzub activities. I explained that I had stopped my activities, and both me and the organization had only purely representative functions. First of all, they were interested in arms and ammunition. Later I saw a story on TV to the effect that the police had allegedly found a whole arsenal that belonged to Tryzub. However, we never had any misunderstandings with the law concerning weapons. No man in his right mind would keep guns at home. And then they took us to a hospital for a medical check.”
What for?
“I don’t know. Maybe they were preparing us for the detention center. We were offered no explanation. Whenever I asked where and what for we were going, and what would be next, the only answer was, ‘Whatever the bosses will order!’
“We spent the next night at the oblast directory of the SBU. I had no watch with me in the cell, and it was hard to understand if it was day or night. I fancied I could hear someone shouting, and the voice seemed familiar, but I’m afraid I might be mistaken.
“Meanwhile, as I later discovered, my Dnipropetrovsk apartment was searched. They came with an angle grinder and welder, but I had left my key with my neighbors so they unlocked the door. During the search they confiscated computer disks, my personal items, and books. They even took a photocopy of a Lviv newspaper from 1933 informing about the arrest of my grandfather, a former colonel of the Ukrainian Galician Army. I have no idea what they might need it for. Also gone was a Bundeswehr mountain ranger cap, a present from my friends.
“On January 20 we were taken to Zaporizhia. The six members of Tryzub were delivered to the Lviv airport with a big escort. There was a special charter flight for us. We were handled like terrorists: hands behind the back, double-quick, first, double-quick, second… A lieutenant colonel came in and said, ‘We are going to treat you like you treated the inhabitants of Zaporizhia.’ Which meant that our guilt was proven, although we hadn’t even been indicted.
“In Zaporizhia, they put up an entire show. They put two of us in a car, with patrol cars in front of the motorcade, and a bus with special squads following. I think they brought us to the city directory of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. We were called to the interrogator one by one, while the rest were waiting in the freezing room. I think that I had been waiting more than eight hours.”
Under what status were you delivered to Zaporizhia?
“It’s hard to say, because personally I didn’t receive any warrants. Besides, I was detained on suspicion of arson of the doors of Yanukovych’s election headquarters in Halych. The room where I was brought was crowded with people, both uniformed and plainclothes. They were asking me about my participation in the Tryzub activities. And then suddenly they ask, ‘What is your attitude towards Stalin?’ And I’m like, ‘What attitude can I have to an individual who killed eight or nine million Ukrainians?’ What resentment did my words cause! Come on, what are you talking about, who killed, where, and when? ‘What about the Holodomor?’ I asked. Then they began to explain to me that the famine did exist, but it was spread everywhere, not only in Ukraine, and I shouldn’t try to brainwash them.
“I realized that for them Stalin is a Hero of Ukraine. And it was said by people wearing tridents on their shoulder straps. So I was sitting there thinking, man, since 1990 I have been fighting for this state, I dedicated my life and my health to it. In The Days of the GKChP I led the city organization of the URP (Ukrainian Republican Party). And in the 20th year of this state I hear that for them, Stalin is hero… Then they started asking me what I had been messed up with in Dnipropetrovsk.”
Was anything blown up or set on fire in Dnipropetrovsk too?
“On the night of January 13, three officers of the Dnipropetrovsk oblast directory of the Mi-nistry of Internal Affairs arrived to take me with them. I don’t know why, but they handled me in a very civil manner. They said they were not going to stuff anything into my pockets, that they just had a few questions to ask.
“It was the first time in those four days that I relaxed. I felt as if I were going home. In the oblast directory office they kindly offered me some tea, and executed a new detention report. The old one had long expired. Then I was taken to the detention center, which was horrible, although they put me in a cell for only four people. In the morning I saw bites on my cellmate’s neck. They explained it was bedbugs. It turned out I was lucky, as the other cells held up to ten persons.
“Then my escort came. In the oblast directory a lady investigator said that I was suspected of having murdered a certain businessman, Brahinsky, whom I had never heard about before. This man died in a bomb explosion in Dnipropetrovsk on October 13, 2009.
“I told the investigator that this story was turning into a farce. They kept asking me about the organizations, parties I had never been a member of, and if I had met the late Slava Stetsko. However, I fail to understand what it has to do with the killing of a Dnipropetrovsk businessman.
“Finally, I was released, on parole not to leave the country. The investigator even offered one hundred hryvnias to buy me a ticket. I refused the money, although after the confiscation of my personal belongings in Ivano-Frankivsk oblast, I was totally broke. When I walked out into the streets, in mucky jeans, unshaven, and without any shoe strings, I felt like a true tramp. Thanks God, my friend came to pick me up, and took me home to Dniprodzerzhynsk.”
Law enforcement bodies made your organization famous. So it’s quite probable now that it will be used to browbeat people. What is Tryzub, actually?
“The organization was founded on the initiative of Vasyl Ivanyshyn, associate professor at the Drohobych Pedagogical Institute back in 1993. Tryzub, organized like an order, has several aspects to its work, in particular, education of the young and spreading the national idea among Ukrainians. We think that Ukraine needs a nation state, in which the people will be able to direct the government. However, armed methods are out of the question as they can result in the destruction of the state. We have a perfectly clear idea of this, even though the regime wants to make us into terrorists.”
