Court of Appeal rejected motion of Chervinsky’s lawyers to interrogate witnesses, including Zaluzhny
The panel of judges of the Kyiv Court of Appeal, during a court hearing to appeal against the decision to extend the detention of Roman Chervinsky, a Ukrainian Special Forces colonel, which was issued without the presence of his lawyers, rejected the defence’s request to question witnesses, including the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valeriy Zaluzhny.
This was reported by Censor.NET.
Chervinsky's lawyers emphasised that the court hearing would address three important conceptual issues. The first is the validity of the suspicion. The second is the presence or absence of risks, and the third is Roman Chervinsky's stable social ties.
In order to refute the suspicion and the risks that the prosecution may be talking about, the lawyers asked to question witnesses. Among them is volunteer Dmytro Zavrazhny, who, according to the defence, can report on the circumstances of the absence of damage at the Kanatovo airfield, the circumstances of pressure exerted by the pre-trial investigation body to oblige them to file a civil suit, as well as the circumstances of pressure exerted by the pre-trial investigation body and the prosecutor on the command of the Kanatovo airfield and military personnel to provide false and inaccurate testimony. The defence also requested that Chervinsky's former military superiors Semenyuk and Hanushchak, who are aware of the details of the operation, and the SBU officer who initiated the operation, be questioned in court. In addition, Chervinsky's lawyers filed a motion to interrogate the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valeriy Zaluzhny.
The prosecution objected to the summons and questioning of the judges, arguing that they would not be able to say anything new and important. Instead, the prosecutor asked to attach a letter from Zaluzhny, which the SSU received in response to his request.
The judges refused to allow the defence to question witnesses and the prosecution to attach the letter.
Earlier, the media reported that the Ukrainian military had been recruiting a Russian pilot for several months to hijack the plane. According to media reports, Roman Chervinsky was among them. Subsequently, as the SSU noted, the "operation" was carried out over the objections of the SSU and without the consent of the relevant state authorities. As a result, the enemy received information about the deployment of personnel of the Ukrainian Air Force and Ukrainian aircraft at the Kanatove airfield. This allowed the Russian Armed Forces to shell the airfield.
Subsequently, Chervinsky gave Censor.NET an exclusive interview in which he spoke about the operation at the Kanatove airfield.
In April 2023, the SSU served Chervinsky with a notice of suspicion in the case of the shelling of the Kanatove airfield in the Kirovohrad region by the occupiers. He was detained in the Ternopil region.
Major General Viktor Hanushchak, who was in charge of the military unit in which Colonel Chervinsky was enlisted as deputy commander, told Censor.NET in an interview that the operation at Kanatove airfield had been agreed with the top leadership of the Armed Forces. However, the court refused to hear Hanushchak and did not accept evidence in Chervinsky's favour.
Roman Chervinsky was one of the intelligence officers who organised an operation to detain Russian mercenaries from the Wagner PMC in 2020, luring them to Belarus. There, the mercenaries were supposed to board a plane that would later be crash-landed in Ukraine by the Ukrainian special services. However, the operation failed. On 24 June 2021, President Zelensky confirmed the preparation of a special operation against the Wagnerians. Zelensky also said that the special operation against the Wagnerites was the idea of other countries and that Ukraine was involved in this issue as much as possible.
In December 2021, intelligence officers from the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine Chervinsky and Semenyuk spoke about the betrayal of the operation. According to Chervinsky, several people from the President's Office could have leaked information about the operation to detain the Wagnerites. He also said that the Presidential Office threatened the ex-intelligence officers with criminal proceedings.
