Deputies of the Lviv oblast council are trying to size up the scope of the Sknyliv tragedy and find who is to blame. But only on condition that this move of the local Our Ukraine fraction finds support among the assembly of oblast council deputies will this issue be taken up at the first regular council session in early September. By that time, Our Ukraine members believe, the deputies will have received all the materials of the investigation into the causes of the air crash conducted by the state commission chaired by NSDC Secretary Yevhen Marchuk. With no materials in hand Our Ukraine, it seems, has been making some conclusions on its own. For one thing, they flatly reject any allegations of involvement in the tragedy of “the Lviv democratic authorities headed by Liubomyr Buniak.” Instead they shift the blame for the gruesome consequences of the air show to the first deputy head of the Lviv oblast state administration, Oleksandr Serdeha. As he chaired the organizing committee to prepare the celebration of the sixtieth anniversary of the XIV Air Corps of the Ukrainian Air Force, the Our Ukraine deputies believe it time he stepped down. However, as Lviv Oblast State Administration Director Myron Yankiv put it, his first deputy is a conscientious person, for which reason the governor is not inclined to accuse Mr. Serdeha of negligence. “After all he did not pilot the plane or draft the plan, nor was he charged with any special functions,” said the governor. He went on to say that it is unreasonable to shift the blame to civil authorities at a time like this. As to consideration of the causes of the Sknyliv tragedy at the coming September session of the oblast council, its chairman Mykhailo Sendak says he is not entitled to submit the question for discussion. The oblast head will be able to say definitely whether this issue will be addressed or not only in case the required number of deputies insist on this. Then the oblast council presidium will meet to vote on whether this session should be held. Be that as it may, there is growing evidence that the Sknyliv tragedy is taking on deeper political implications in Lviv. This is made all the more obvious by the creation of the so-called Committee for the Protection of the Lviv Mayor. In this context the words of Yevhen Marchuk come to mind: “It would be more logical to set up a committee for the protection of the families that suffered and children left without parents.”
