In Smila, Cherkasy region, young man with athletic build punched soldier. VIDEO
A video was posted online showing a young man in Smila, Cherkasy region, who was athletically built, punched a man in uniform several times.
According to Censor.NET, the recording shows several men talking in the street near a silver car. At the beginning of the second minute of the recording, a man wearing a white T-shirt and blue shorts beats a soldier. He falls and lies on the road for a long time. After a while, he gets up. Several other men join the conversation. The conversation continues, and a few minutes later the same man hits him again and goes to another group of men. There are eight men involved in the conflict. Some of them are in military uniforms, some are in civilian clothes.
The victim was a veteran of the Russian-Ukrainian war, Anatolii Honcharenko
According to the local newspaper 18000, the victim was a resident of Smila, a veteran of the Russian-Ukrainian war, Anatolii Honcharenko, who served in one of the combat units of the Special Operations Forces, but was later demobilised for family reasons and is currently not in service.
Honcharenko's participation in the war is also evidenced by his social media profile, which is filled with photos and videos of combat operations and preparations for them.
At the end of August, Anatolii Honcharenko posted a message that he was looking for a car with foreign licence plates. According to Honcharenko, the driver of the car had caused an accident with his parents and had a conflict with them.
Shortly after Honcharenko published this post, one of the local publics posted the video above, where unidentified young men first confront each other, and then one of them beats a man in uniform twice. The man in the uniform was Honcharenko, and the person beating him seemed to be the driver of the car he was looking for.
Later, one of the local Smila news outlets published a post that they called an "explanation" of the situation.
In the video, which was published in public, an unknown man mocks the soldier and forces him to apologize because, in his words, he "disgraced him for the whole of Smila."
In addition, the video shows the soldier, kneeling in the rain, screwing license plates on the young man's car. Later it became known that Honcharenko tore these license plates off the car he was looking for, which provoked the conflict.
The same video also contains an apology from Honcharenko, recorded from a different location. In this video, the man apologizes "to the boys" and states that his parents were "in the wrong." In this video, traces of beatings are clearly visible on his face.
The offender turned out to be Vadym Dolotenko, who is involved in a number of criminal proceedings
Residents of Smila quickly identified the person who was mocking the soldier and forcing him to apologise.
According to 18000, he was a well-known local semi-criminal element, Vadym Dolotenko. He is the man in the video wearing a white T-shirt who beats the soldier twice.
It is noted that Dolotenko is involved in a number of criminal proceedings. These cases are related, in particular, to infliction of bodily harm and robbery.
In 2017, he had a conflict with local activist Ilia Slobodianyk. The activist accused Dolotenko of beating and threatening him after he criticised the then mayor of Smila, Viktor Fedorenko.
For more than seven years, the prosecution has not been able to bring Dolotenko to justice for these episodes. This case is still being considered in court.
Dolotenko is also involved in at least one other criminal proceeding. It concerns a robbery that took place in Smila in 2020. According to the investigation, Dolotenko arrived at the house of a local resident to find her son, who allegedly owed money. Finding neither the son nor the money, Dolotenko tore off the woman's gold pendant and said he would return it when he received the money from her son. After that, he fled the scene. In March 2024, the Smila City District Court issued a verdict in the case, sentencing Dolotenko to a year in prison under the article "robbery", but this sentence was later commuted to a suspended sentence.
Local media also reported that Dolotenko is a professional boxer.
The video of the conflict also shows another person who, together with Dolotenko, beats the soldier, but after he had fallen to the ground. He has not yet been identified.
Response of law enforcement agencies
The spokesperson for the Main Department of the National Police in Cherkasy region, Zoia Vovk, told 18000 that no criminal proceedings had been opened over this incident.
"The victim in the video has withdrawn his statement, so we have no grounds to open proceedings," she said in a comment to the publication.
However, she noted that the incident was recorded in the Unified Register of Appeals and Statements. However, if Honcharenko writes a second statement, the actions of the participants in the event will be legally qualified.
Reaction of local activists
A number of activists and concerned residents of Smila also publicly reacted to the incident. They called on law enforcement officials to respond to the incident and bring Anatolii Honcharenko's offenders to justice.
On Monday, 9 September, activists held a peaceful rally outside the Smila police station in support of Anatolii Honcharenko.
You can watch the broadcast of the event here.
Military reaction
The incident was also commented on by the military. In particular, the head of the 422nd separate battalion of unmanned systems LUFTWAFFE, Mykola Kolesnyk, reacted angrily on Facebook to the inaction of the police in the situation with the beating of soldier Anatolii Honcharenko.
