Number of officials involved in separatist movements in eastern Ukraine in 2004 are still working in government agencies. DOCUMENT
Officials who were members of the separatist movements in eastern Ukraine in the early 2000s continue to work in government agencies.
This was reported by Censor.NET with reference to Radio Liberty.
As noted, this is evidenced by archival documents of the period.
Among these officials are Viktor Beschastnyi, head of the Constitutional Court's secretariat, and Oleksandr Zats, a member of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine. They agreed to hold a "referendum on granting Donetsk region the status of a republic within the federation". Judge of the Kharkiv District Administrative Court Vladislav Yehupenko was on the list of the executive committee of the Kharkiv region, who was supposed to take over power from Kyiv. And Kyiv City Council deputy Oleksandr Popov was a speaker at a congress in Siverskodonetsk, where they called for the creation of a "south-eastern republic".
The newspaper writes that in 2004, as the head of the Commission on Deputy Activities, Ethics, Legal Policy, Law and Order of the Donetsk Regional Council, Beschastny was one of the initiators of convening an emergency session to vote for the so-called referendum "on granting Donetsk region the status of a republic within the federation".
This is evidenced by his signature on the appeal of the regional council deputies addressed to the then chairman of the Donetsk Regional Council, Borys Kolesnikov.
In addition, Beschastnyi justified to the deputies the need to hold this 'referendum'. This is confirmed by an explanatory note in which he wrote that this issue was being submitted to the regional session "taking into account the political situation that threatens public safety, the constitutional order, the life and health of citizens, taking into account the meetings of territorial communities and the appeal of the deputies of the Donetsk Regional Council".
Later, at an extraordinary meeting of the Donetsk Regional Council, the deputies decided to hold a referendum on 5 December 2004, which would allow the region to obtain a special status.
After this vote, Beschastnyi also approved a draft decision to hold this referendum. At the same time, the deputies also voted for a copy of the ballot.
In a commentary to journalists, Beschastnyi denied any involvement in the events of that time.
"I refused to address these issues. I have not made any decisions," he said.
However, the editorial board compared his signature on the 2004 documents with his current signature, already in the status of the head of the Constitutional Court's secretariat, and they are the same.
"Radio Liberty emphasises that the secretariat, currently headed by Viktor Beschastnyi, at the Constitutional Court of Ukraine checks all appeals to the court and decides whether to submit them for consideration or not, the article says.
Together with him, the draft decision on the referendum was also agreed by Oleksandr Zats, who was then the deputy chairman of the Donetsk Regional Council. Today, Zats is a member of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine.
According to the newspaper, he went abroad as a volunteer in 2022 and did not return. The journalists failed to contact him.
The documents confirm that the name of the current judge of the Kharkiv District Administrative Court, Vladyslav Yehupenko, was on the executive committee established on 26 November 2004 at an emergency session of the Kharkiv Regional Council, which was supposed to take over all power from Kyiv.
At the time, he was a member of the Kharkiv Regional Council and was in charge of the police at the Kharkiv Southern Railway. On the same day, the deputies of this council decided to re-subordinate the police in the region and the railway, television, and stopped the transfer of funds to the state budget.
In a commentary to journalists, the official said that he did not remember the details, but "was against all decisions".
The current deputy of the Kyiv City Council, Oleksandr Popov, was one of the speakers at the congress in Siverskodonetsk, which called for the creation of a "Ukrainian South-Eastern Republic". According to the transcript of the congress, he congratulated presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych on his victory and promised support in his capacity as mayor of Komsomolsk (now known as Horishni Plavni).
In a commentary to journalists, he explained that he still believes that the congress was "for the development of Ukraine".
"I can say for sure that there was no anti-state approach or any vision against Ukraine. On the contrary," the MP said.
The newspaper reminds that the extraordinary sessions in Donetsk, Kharkiv, Luhansk and the congress in Siverskodonetsk, Luhansk region, were held in support of presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych against the backdrop of the Orange Revolution. Following the congress and the decision of the Donetsk regional council to hold a referendum, the SSU opened a criminal case under the article "encroachment on the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine". In 2006, the case was closed and all charges dropped.
