Volodymyr Omelyan: On case against me
Since Bankova, acting through the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI), has already managed to serve me with a notice of suspicion over allegedly serving improperly in 2023, I suggest the following headline for the media:
"While NABU is twiddling its thumbs, the SBI has established who the mysterious Vova R1 from the notorious Dynasty cottage estate is!
It turned out to be Volodymyr Omelyan, who was distracted from military duty, stole land and concrete from the construction of Energoatom’s protective structures, and dragged them to his own house."
Now to the point.
I voluntarily joined the ranks of Ukraine’s Armed Forces on 24 February 2022. I did not ask for posts, did not negotiate awards or ranks, stood duty, and went on combat missions at the front more than once.
While newly minted millionaires and billionaires were lining their pockets, I was travelling across Ukraine and hauling vehicles, ATVs, body armor, drones, and so on to the battalions in which I served.
I did not puff myself up as a former minister. I drove beat-up wrecks along battered roads, including under enemy fire, to get what the authorities should have provided but did not give a damn about the fighters, because they were busy taking care of themselves.
At the beginning of 2023, when I had the imprudence to win at all levels the Bankova-commissioned case against me over a "criminal intent to cut port tariffs and fees by 20%," my joy and the support on social media triggered yet another fit on Bankova among an entrenched organized criminal group, which once again gave the sic-'em command, eagerly picked up by the SBI.
As you may recall, it was precisely then that another wave of criminal proceedings swept across Ukraine against opinion leaders whose position differed from the unorthodox line that had become the norm. The main slogan was: "Shame on the elite who serve the wrong way." It was especially amusing to read these hit pieces from Kremlin magpies and from those who had repeatedly dodged military service with impunity or, despite all their promises to go to war, would never make it to the front even later.
One such hit piece became the grounds for the SBI to open criminal proceedings against me in autumn 2023 over the allegation that I was serving "the wrong way."
On 25 August 2024, at 5:00 in the morning, more than 100 SBI officers simultaneously stormed more than seven locations across Ukraine, including the military units where I had served and where I was stationed, as well as private homes. Or, as the SBI puts it, "the Bureau ensures a comprehensive and impartial approach to such proceedings, regardless of the positions held by the persons involved." Never before had my whereabouts acquired such national significance.
I will come back to this date once more: on 24 August 2024, two Russian guided aerial bombs hit the position of my battalion where I was stationed. Interestingly, for several days before the strike, calls from a Kyiv number kept coming to my mobile phone. The caller would not respond; they were triangulating my location.
When I came to after the blast, with 15 shrapnel wounds across my body and a broken leg, the first thing I thought was: someone really loves numerology and really does not love me.
In spring 2025, I was discharged from Ukraine’s Armed Forces due to the injuries I had sustained.
I thought I would spend some time with my family and help Ukraine from London, so as not to irritate anyone here any further by reforming or fighting the wrong way again, or by criticising too much.
But that happiness proved short-lived. I am once again among the state’s top three enemies, this time after Andriy Bohdan and Vitalii Shabunin.
Well, politics may be something you can leave behind, but it will never leave you alone.
If that is the case, then I will have to return to active politics and, starting Monday, begin sorting out what the merry boys and girls have been up to over the past seven years.
P.S. As for whom and what the SBI served today, go ask a fortune teller.
I am in Britain, have just returned from an important event, and am reading with delight the news about how Bankova has already defeated everyone, including me.
