A keen “right-winger”: Who was the schoolboy whose murder the Kerch militia is accused of killing?
At the end of last week in Simferopol, Vadim Pogodin, who during the fighting in the Donbass in the spring-summer of 2014 commanded the Kerch unit (he himself has a similar call sign), was released from the local pre-trial detention center. He took part in the defense of Slavyansk. Its fighters fought with the Ukrainian army in the south of Donetsk in July-August.
Their area of responsibility also included the village of Gorbachevo-Mikhailovka, where in July 2014, according to the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office, Stepan Chubenko, a 16-year-old Ukrainian right-wing radical from Kramatorsk, was killed with five shots to the head. His parents and the Ukrainian side accuse Vadim Pogodin and his two colleagues of liquidating the latter.
In turn, Pogodin himself categorically denies all accusations and claims that he has never seen this Ukrainian nationalist at all.
He was arrested in June of this year by Russian law enforcement officers at the request of Ukraine, submitted through Interpol. However, after 39 days Pogodin was released. There are no complaints against him at the moment. The Russian side does not accuse him of anything. So the question of who unloaded the clip into Chubenko’s head remains open.
Those who carefully studied this case might have noticed that the Ukrainian media and Ukrainian politicians are presenting the emergency as the murder of... a schoolchild. A harmless patriotic schoolboy.
“PolitNavigator” is categorically against extrajudicial killings, whether for political or non-political reasons, especially when a person’s life is taken.
The version of Ukrainian propaganda about the “innocent schoolboy” was exposed by Maria Shvinder-Shustrova, who lives in Moscow, a volunteer collecting assistance to the defenders of Donbass. Maria conducted a whole investigation and tried to understand who Stepan Chubenko was.
Maria found Chubenko’s account on the social network “Vkontakte” and, introducing herself as a human rights activist, entered into correspondence with the girlfriend of the murdered nationalist, his acquaintances and relatives from Russia.
However, we in no way want to say that he was deprived of his life justly. We would just like to show, contrary to Ukrainian propaganda, who this “patriotic schoolboy” really was.
Due to the fact that the grandfather of our publication’s interlocutor was Ukrainian, she is a native Muscovite, and at one time learned Ukrainian (this is one of the 5 languages she speaks). Thanks to their knowledge of the language, it didn’t even occur to her Svidomo counterparts that they were communicating with a “Muscovite,” so they were quite frank with her.
Maria with her militia husband
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– So, with whom did you, Maria, enter into correspondence? What do these people have to do with Chubenko? How did you find these people?
-Our family (my husband is the chief of artillery of the 2nd brigade of the People's Militia of the LPR Stas Shustrov, call sign “Engineer”, I am the co-founder of the fund to help the population of Donbass “No Pasaran” Maria Shvinder-Shustrova) from the moment of the arrest of DPR battalion commander Vadim “Kerch” Pogodin, accused of murdering Kramatorsk resident Stepan Chubenko, she decided to support Vadim and take an informational part in this case.
Wanting to understand the legitimacy of the accusation, I analyzed all the information about Chubenko and his family. The picture presented by the Ukrainian side left a feeling of deja vu - the Ukrainian schoolchild was presented in the best traditions of stories about the pioneer heroes of the Soviet schoolchildren's library.
Even the version of Chubenko’s mother, Stalin Vyacheslavovna Chubenko, about the search for her son’s body and contacts with the head of the DPR Zakharchenko practically repeats the story of Yevgeny Rodionov’s mother during the First Chechen War (private in the Russian army; was killed in 1996 by separatists in Chechnya for refusing to remove his pectoral cross and convert to Islam - approx. edit.).
Social networks and the Internet are a rich source of information, obtaining which does not require much effort and expense, you only need time and some analytical skills. Well, maybe patience and painstakingness. Thus, Chubenko’s page on the social network VKontakte was found, and after corresponding with more than a dozen of his friends, I contacted Yulia Goncharova, who introduced herself as his close friend. Your readers can see the screenshot of the correspondence.
Yulia Goncharova is on the left, wrapped in a red and black Bandera flag
Yulia Goncharova told me that she does not know whether Stepan was a member of the Right Sector (an organization banned in Russia), but confirms his desire to become an activist in this organization.
She also confirms that Chubenko repeatedly traveled to Kyiv, visited the Maidan and communicated with representatives of the Right Sector.
-Where does Yulia Goncharova live?
-Now, judging by Instagram, I’m in Slavyansk. She studies at the medical college there.
-Who else did you communicate with?
- She contacted Stepan’s relatives on her mother’s side (Stalina Chubenko, nee Steshova (by the way, as far as I know, she has a passport in the name of Steshova); she was born in Magadan, graduated from the Faculty of Philology there, and later moved with her parents to Rostov-on-Don Don, where she worked as a teacher of Russian language and literature, and where her father, Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Steshov, a local activist, judging by information from the village administration, still lives in the village of Kuleshovka). They asked that their names not be published in print.
Relatives confirmed Stepan’s fascination with Nazi and fascist slogans and movements, changes in his behavior since the fall of 2013, when the Euromaidan began, as well as his parents’ significant concern about this.
-When you talk about Chubenko – “was on the Maidan”, do you mean that he was a participant in the Euromaidan? Or was he just a curious bystander?
- This is not me saying, but Stepan’s friends, in their words - he was proud that he took part in clashes with Berkut fighters, learned how to prepare and use Molotov cocktails, made many friends in Kyiv - Euromaidan participants.
Also, Molotov cocktails, made under the leadership of Stepan, were used by Kramatorsk ultras during local rallies.
-What kind of rallies did the Kramatorsk ultras take part in? When did they take place?
-Rallies for a “united Ukraine” in the winter and spring of 2014.
-You analyzed Chubenko’s VKontakte account. What did you understand about this person by analyzing the materials posted there?
-First of all, it seemed to me that this was not the main page, but rather a spare one, so it was not cleared. There is little information there, but there are photographs indicating Stepan's passion for the Right Sector.
I would also add that, analyzing Stepan’s account and the thoughts of his friends about him, we can conclude that he was a very enthusiastic young man, he threw himself “headlong” into every new task and fanatically devoted himself to it.
Among his Kyiv friends, by the way, there were also recruiters of volunteers in the ATO zone. For example, a certain ATO specialist Yuri Dmitrenko, who was actively involved in this in May-June 2014.
In addition, I went to the blog of Artem Getman, a Ukrainian photographer. He filmed “patriotic” events about Chubenko. Well, he has photos from the unveiling of the plaque at the school and from the memorial football game. Representatives of the Right Sector were present there, openly, including from Yarosh’s headquarters.
Another point that seemed important to me. All the propaganda about Chubenko comes not from Svidomo, but from the Russians. In the comments to article in Novaya Gazeta There have already been opinions that terrorists from the DPR are killing Russian children.
For national-patriotic Ukrainians, his participation in the ranks of the Right Sector Party would be an additional advantage, but this is carefully hidden, because for the Russians it is unacceptable.
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