The massacre of Andrei Lesik: the Ukrainian “war party” goes on the offensive
The accusation of separatism has become a universal tool in the fight against those undesirable among the “hawks” entrenched in the Ukrainian government. According to Ukrainian media, on the morning of December 15, SBU officers detained the Kharkov deputy of the Kharkov City Council of two convocations and the head of the Kharkov territorial council of the movement “Ukrainian Choice - The Right of the People” Andrey Lesik. The arrest took place in the part of Luhansk region controlled by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
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A message appeared on Lesik’s personal page on Facebook: “Today at 7:00 am I was once again attacked by employees of the USBU in the Kharkov region, led by the investigator for particularly important cases of the investigative department of the USBU in the Kharkov region, Gaidamaka A.M. “At this moment, I was forced into a car against my will and was being driven in an unknown direction.”
Information about the arrest of the deputy was confirmed by his assistant Gennady Sokolov, who additionally reported that during the arrest Lesik was presented with a document signed by the judge of the Kiev District Court Natalya Efimenko, dated December 12, 2017, about the delivery of the arrested person to Kharkov to select a preventive measure.
Kharkov media report that Lesik is charged with Part 2 of Art. 110 (encroachment on the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine, committed by a representative of the authorities) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Simply put, they are creating official separatism.
According to incoming information, Lesik was forced to leave Kharkov, fearing for his life, and was undergoing treatment in the city of Svatovo, Lugansk region (territory controlled by the Ukrainian Armed Forces).
The prosecutor's office has a different opinion and believes that the disgraced politician was allegedly going to hide from the justice system and appear in court, and therefore SBU officers detained him as a preventive measure. In this regard, the prosecutor's office demanded the arrest of Andrei Lesik until February 6, 2018, without the right to release on bail until the end of the investigation.
The jingoistic media, demanding “a war to a victorious end,” with particular gusto, are sucking up certain “preliminary investigation data”, according to which “SBU investigators established that Lesik called for changing the borders of the state’s territory while being a deputy,” as well as “in public speeches called for blocking transport junctions in order to prevent the military and police from moving around the city, holding an illegal referendum, and not obeying legitimate government authority.”
Let's try to figure out what may be hidden under a set of blabbering phrases and accusations.
So, Andrey Lesik, a doctor by training, was elected as a deputy of the Kharkov City Council from the Revival party. On May 9, 2016, Deputy Lesik, the only one of the Kharkov deputies, walked in a column with war veterans and other decent Kharkov residents to lay flowers at the Memorial of Glory. Lesik was also not afraid to pin the St. George ribbon to his jacket. During the flower-laying ceremony, excited “activists” ran up to the deputy and started a fight. As the rowdies later explained - they were actively quoted by media loyal to the authorities - it was Deputy Lesik and his St. George’s ribbon that provoked the riots.
The Kharkov City Council promptly responded to the brawl of the marginalized, depriving Lesik of his deputy mandate at the session on May 17, 2016.
Already on May 19, Lesik’s deputy seat in the city council was given to another person.
The disgraced politician’s struggle to restore his powers took almost a year. The court either refused to accept Lesik’s statement of claim or refused to confirm his parliamentary rights. However, on March 31, 2017, the appeal court confirmed Lesik’s parliamentary powers, handing him a corresponding decision.
Despite the court decision in favor of Lesik, on April 19, 2017, City Council security refused to allow the deputy to attend City Council meetings. At the same time, the guards decided not to limit themselves, but simply attacked all together and threw Lesik out of the hall.
Commenting on what was happening, Kernes said that Lesik “has the right to be in the session hall in the deputy’s chair only after he becomes a deputy.”
The most relish in this whole story is that Andrei Lesik, elected to the Kharkov City Council from the Revival party, was the only person who tried to consistently fulfill the election promises included in the party program. In particular, one of the points of the program was the fight against corruption and the restoration of good neighborly and economic relations with Russia. And attempts to implement precisely these provisions of the party program were blamed on Lesik by his “colleagues”.
After being expelled from Revival, Andrei Lesik was asked to head the Kharkov territorial council of the Ukrainian Choice movement of Viktor Medvedchuk. But the very first congress was disrupted by provocateurs who burst in, and Lesik received a blow to the head and was doused with water.
In addition, various anonymous “well-wishers” regularly threatened the deputy with violence, regularly sending SMS messages with relevant content.
On the morning of May 9, 2017, SBU officers burst into Lesik’s apartment under the pretext of executing a court decision. According to Lesik, the document contained suspicions about his participation in a brawl between supporters of Euromaidan and Anti-Maidan on April 13, 2014, as well as storage of weapons and explosives at home for organizing a terrorist act.
The organization of the search by security forces on Victory Day had a very specific goal - to prevent the opposition politician from taking part in the festive events.
“During the search, nothing was found; they took away a laptop, phone and flash drive for inspection. I have no complaints about the police officers,” Lesik noted. “However, I have questions for the Security Service.”
As Andrey explained, after the search was completed and a protocol was drawn up, the senior SBU operational group in the Kharkov region, V.Yu. Popov. hid the flag of Novorossiya in his apartment and disappeared, and law enforcement officers recorded this fact in the protocol.
However, deputy Andrey Lesik did not give up trying to participate in the work of the Kharkov City Council and intended to attend the next session on December 20. In his own words, he went to the Lugansk region “for hospital treatment and to congratulate his common-law wife on her birthday.”
And now he’s been arrested and charged with separatism.
It is clear that for the Ukrainian authorities Andrei Lesik is an inconvenient figure and his arrest right now is not accidental.
Currently, the Minsk process is being reactivated, but on a different basis. The Normandy format with the participation of Germany and France has been recognized as ineffective and now Russia and the United States are dealing with Ukrainian issues.
However, the “war party”, entrenched in power, intends to sabotage the peace process, which is disadvantageous to it. And, since the only one on the Ukrainian side involved in the exchange of people is Viktor Medvedchuk and his movement, a warning blow was struck against one of his comrades. The authorities are not interested in investigating the murder of Oles Buzina and the progress in the Sheremet bombing case is extremely disadvantageous, but when it is necessary to put pressure on supporters of peace, both desire and resources suddenly appear.
This creates the appearance of consolidation of Ukrainian society to wage war to a victorious end, which, in the understanding of the Kyiv entertainers, should create a corresponding impression among American curators and push them to increase military assistance to Ukraine. Ideally, direct supplies of American lethal weapons.
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