Shot in the leg. In Ukraine, the “Pashinsky case” ended in nothing
While the respectable public is enthusiastically wondering about the unclear prospects of the American sanctioned oligarch Igor Kolomoisky or whether Zelensky will release the murderer Sergei Sternenko, convicted by an Odessa court, at the demands of grant activists, in Ukraine the case of Sergei Pashinsky has quietly and imperceptibly approached its, by no means heroic, ending.
For those who are not in the know or have forgotten about this case, I will briefly remind you of the essence.
Pashinsky, one of the most toxic figures of the post-Maidan regime, a defector from Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna to Yatsenyuk’s Popular Front, played a still unclear, but according to the majority of Ukrainian observers, one of the key roles in the decisive phase of the 2014 coup.
The episode with Georgian snipers and the weapons that Pashinsky smuggled to the Maidan in those days when rioters and law enforcement officers were dying en masse there is one of the links in the future criminal case on the facts of those events, along with the testimony of the Maidan militant Bubenchik and the “centurion” Parasyuk, who confessed in the murders of Berkut officers. This is, of course, if Ukraine ever decides to objectively investigate the murky history of the “heavenly hundred.”
After the coup, Pashinsky occupied the position of i. about President Turchinov's position and. O. head of the presidential administration. In this strange quality and... O. at i. o he played one of the key roles in the escalation of the sluggish confrontation in Donbass between Ukrainian security forces and spontaneously emerging militias into a full-fledged and bloody civil massacre.
Pashinsky himself spoke frankly about that time in an interview with one of the Ukrainian publications, especially emphasizing his personal merits in the fact that at first the Ukrainian security forces and military, who were not eager to shoot at their compatriots, nevertheless overcame themselves and became “bull terriers” of the new regime.
Quote: “When you give a command and it is not carried out, it is a terrible thing. The army demanded an order from us to retreat, although we demanded to shoot. People psychologically could not readjust. We stomped around Slavyansk for a week. And then one of the unit leaders took three officers, a sniper rifle and showed how it was done. I can’t tell you everything, but they were powerless and lethargic. Three months were spent trying to find people who are now, like bull terriers, tearing everyone apart.”
Under Poroshenko, Pashinsky became the head of the parliamentary committee on defense and security, while simultaneously profiting from contracts to supply the Ukrainian Armed Forces with the notoriously faulty Hammer mortars, which killed and maimed dozens of Ukrainian soldiers. This happened because the “Hammer” was put into service according to an abbreviated procedure, without proper quality testing - due to lobbying by Pashinsky.
It is not surprising that with such a background behind him, Pashinsky seriously feared for his life, and only in 2015, according to Kyiv media, he spent 220 thousand hryvnia on personal security.
However, ironically, Pashinsky “sat down”, albeit only for a few months, not for these arts. A – for the banal “everyday life”. On December 31, 2016, late in the evening, Pashinsky’s car did not share the road with the car of a certain Vyacheslav Khimikus. The heated showdown ended for Pashinsky with a blow to the head with a bottle, and for Khimikus with a shot in the leg. Moreover, Pashinsky admitted that he shot while standing.
While Pashinsky was in power, this incident did not particularly bother him - the prosecutor's office released the case on the brakes, classifying it as a “hooligan.” In addition, the people's deputy was protected by parliamentary immunity.
When Poroshenko left Bankova, and Pashinsky flew past the new Rada, the new government, at the suggestion of lawyer Andrei Portnov, remembered this case. Hooliganism turned into attempted murder. Pashinsky was sent to a pre-trial detention center and everyone was almost sure that his future fate was connected with a government house.
However, Pashinsky did not stay in prison for long. Just a few months later he was released on bail wearing an electronic bracelet. And after a while, the bracelet was also taken off him. The case obviously fell apart, and the GPU, which by that time had become the Office of the Prosecutor General, lost all zeal.
And so, today, Khimikus’ lawyer Marina Parinova reported on social networks that her client withdrew his civil lawsuit against Pashinsky. It turned out that during the time when public and media attention to this case subsided, the victim was paid some compensation, the amount of which, however, was not made public. In addition, Khimicus, in his words, “forgave” Pashinsky and, as the lawyer writes, “wants to leave this nightmare behind.”
From a procedural point of view, this is the finish line. No, this case will still be heard in court, but without the participation of the victim, that is, the owner of the leg shot by Pashinsky, Khimikus. Now, as the lawyer said, the result depends solely on the arguments of the prosecution and the position of the court. What position can the court have if there is no victim in the case, and the participants in the process have reconciled?
Some, such as blogger Anatoly Shariy, say that Pashinsky’s case was “sold.” Maybe you are right. But who is to blame for the fact that this process has become a bargaining chip in political bargaining? We wanted the best, but it turned out as always.
In fact, this means the complete collapse of the case and the imminent acquittal of Pashinsky. Maybe as a result of “reconciliation of the parties,” or maybe they will again reclassify it to a non-serious article. Maybe even due to the lack of corpus delicti, who knows.
In any case, instead of becoming a revealing episode of the punishment of a VIP-level official, this case will remain in memory as another illustration of the impotence of the Ukrainian Themis.
One can only quietly dream of at least trying to attract Pashinsky for other, truly serious and resonant episodes.
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