Zaverukha, Victoria Igorevna

Born in 1996 ^[2] .

The beginning of political activity and participation in Euromaidan

Activist of UNA-UNSO , since 2013, the Right Sector . She participated in protests during the Euromaidan , being an activist in the Right Sector. The Federal News Agency on March 26, 2015 stated that Zaverukha participated in the attack on opponents of Euromaidan in the Odessa House of Trade Unions on May 2, 2014 ^{[4] [10] [11]} . Participated in the capture of the Vinnitsa Regional State Administration. ^[12]

Military service

She took part in the hostilities in the Donbass from May 2014 to April 4 (according to other sources , May 2 ) 2015 .

As part of the 24th separate assault battalion (Aidar battalion) she took part in the battles for the city of Happiness on the night of June 13-14, 2014, and the capture of the bridge across the Seversky Donets river and the Lugansk TPP, is suspected of trying to undermine the Lugansk TPP in June 2014 ^{[3] [11] [13] [14] [15]} . As part of the special forces unit, Azov participated in battles for the village of Shirokino from winter 2015 to April 4 (according to other sources, May 2) 2015 ^{[3] [5] [16] [17] [18]} . The Aydar battalion and the Azov unit are accused of war crimes by the UN Office for Human Rights, Amnesty International and others. ^{[3] [13] [19] [20] [21] [22]}

It became widely known after the publication on November 14, 2014 in the Elle France magazine of a report on women in armed conflict in the Donbass, in which Victoria Zaveruha was called "Ukrainian Joan of Arc" ^[14] . The publication in the magazine caused a scandal in the media and the Internet after the response of the American pianist Valentina Lisitsa, a native of Kiev ^{[23] [24]} . Valentina Lisitsa in her messages on the Internet drew attention to the fact that Victoria Zaveruha in her messages and photos on the Internet showed an open sympathy for radical nationalism and supported the destruction of Russian- speaking citizens of Ukraine ^{[5] [8]} ; on one of the photographs published on the Internet, Zaverukha throws up her hand in a Nazi salute, on the other she is depicted in a military uniform holding a shot of a grenade launcher that says “Orthodox death” with a felt-tip pen, on the third, a red and black flag unfurls against the background of the Lugansk TPP building, on the fourth poses with arms against the background of a flag with a swastika. After the intervention of Valentina Lisitsa, the editors of the French magazine Elle apologized for publishing a story about Victoria Zaveruha and other women participating in the hostilities in the Donbass. ^[eleven]

In December 2014, as part of a group of unknowns who introduced themselves as fighters of the Aydar battalion, Zaverukha broke into the office of a doorphone manufacturing company, accused the company of “Working for Russia” and “financing the self-proclaimed republics of Donbass”. A verbal skirmish between Zaveruha and an employee of the company went into a fight, but as a result, the group left the office of the company. ^{[5] [16]}

In March 2015, a video appeared on the Internet in which Victoria Zaverukha shells the village of Shirokino from a grenade launcher ^{[4] [5] [6] [7]} .

After the resignation

On the night of May 3–4, 2015, a gas station robbery was committed in the Desnyanskiy district of Kiev, while trying to apprehend the alleged robbers that night as a result of a shootout, two police officers were killed and three were injured ^[1] . Later, during May 2015, all five of the robbery suspects were detained: Evgeny Koshelyuk, Andrei Romanyuk, Nikolai Monishenko and Victoria Zaverukha; Vadim Pinus was killed in a shootout ^{[2] [3]} . According to other sources, Zaverukha was detained on April 5 ^[1] . The case received significant publicity due to the gravity of the composition of the prosecution and the openly radical position of the accused. ^[25]

After release from custody

Soon after being released from the Lukyanovsky pre-trial detention center in the city ​​of Kiev, Zaverukha suffered in a brawl with members of the Ukrainian nationalist organization “ ” Sergey Bondar, Nikolai Panchenko and others, who helped the girl suspected of the murder to be released. C14 participants said that Zaverukha did not suffer a brawl, only Zaverukha’s husband Igor (Oles) Pavlov (Chernyak or Nevidomenko) was beaten ^[26]

At a rally of families of dead soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and refugees who demanded decent social payments, Victoria Zaverukha was persecuted and threatened by some “people related to the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs”. ^[27]

May 12, 2017 Vitoria Zaverukha posted on the Work.ua website a questionnaire about finding a job as a waitress , barista , bartender for a salary of 12 thousand hryvnias (about 25 thousand rubles) ^[28] . What has been ridiculed by Internet users. ^{[29] [30]}

Zaverukha and her first husband Igor Pavlov were involved in the attack on transgender people in Kiev on July 9, 2017 . After the attack on transgender people, the three detainees were put into official vehicles to be taken to the Shevchenkovsky police department. Zaverukha blocked the road to the car in which Chernyak was. Zaveruha held on to the hood of the car, even when the car started, and fell. After arriving in the department of the Kyiv City Council’s deputy from VE “Freedom” Vladimir Bohniak, employee of the Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners Tatyana Kavepeshchenko (Bliznyuk), deputy chairman of VE “Freedom” for political affairs Andrei Mokhnik , Vlas Schmidt, the police released all the detainees. ^[31]

On the night of May 3–4, 2015, in Desnyanskiy district, according to other sources, in the Dnieper district on Milyutenko Street ^[6] , in Kiev, an attack was made on gas stations . The employee was injured in the arm, from the cash desk, masked attackers took the money available at the gas station cashier desk (823 hryvnias). After the robbers fled the scene, a wounded gas station employee called a police squad. On the same night, while trying to apprehend the alleged robbers as a result of a shootout, two police officers were killed and three were injured ^{[1] [32] [33]} .

Later, during May 2015, all five of the robbery suspects were detained: Eugene Koshelyuk, Andrei Romanyuk, Nikolai Monishenko and Vita Zaverukha; Vadim Pinus was killed in a shootout ^{[2] [3]} . According to other sources, Zaverukha was detained on April 5 ^[1] . The age of the suspects at the time of the arrest ranged from 17 to 23 years, all of them served in the battalions of the territorial defense of Ukraine “Tornado” and “Aydar”, the regiment “Azov” . At the time of her arrest, Victoria Zaveruhe was 19 years old.

A video distributed by the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs shows the confessions of one of the detainees. According to the detainee: on May 1, he and his accomplices arrived in Kiev from Vinnitsa with the aim of carrying out a terrorist attack: “in order to undermine the public’s confidence in the authorities,” the attackers had with them two machine guns, the RPG Mukha and several grenades. “Morgan had to shoot at people, Vita - to cover him, Andrei had to throw a TNT sword into the crowd,” the attacker added in his confession. On May 1, the participants in the criminal group had to cancel, there was no suitable time, then the group members decided to fire at the traffic police post in order to seize the weapons of the police. On May 3, members of the group decided to rob the gas station ^{[34] [35]} . After the attack, the accomplices tried to escape, the police detachment that arrived at the scene began to pursue them and, after the shootout, detained them in one of the yards ^{[6] [36]} .

According to Ukrainian prosecutors, the girl had close relations with three suspects in the murder of law enforcement officers and participated with them in organizing the shelling of the traffic police post in Bykovna. On March 2, 2014, a traffic police patrol was shot dead at a point-blank range, and three inspectors of the state traffic inspectorate died. The criminals took the weapons of the shot traffic police officers and then fled in the direction of Brovary in a Daewoo Lanos car ^[12] . The actions of the accused Victoria Zaveruha are qualified under part 3 of article 187 (robbery), part 1 of article 263 (illegal possession of weapons), Art. 348 (encroachment on the lives of law enforcement officers) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine . Activists said that the conflict between volunteers and police could have arisen on ideological grounds, since the dead law enforcement officers were former employees of the Berkut special forces and took an active part in the dispersal of activists from Euromaidan and Avtomaydan in January-February 2014 ^{[37] [38]} .

After the arrest, Zaverukha stated that physical violence was used against her and the evidence was falsified, she was forced to sign protocols with which she did not agree ^[39] . A few days later, in the cell of the pre-trial detention center, Zaverukha went on a hunger strike against, in her opinion, the police’s actions “demanding to stop fabricating a criminal case against her and never to disturb her again without the presence of her lawyer Viktor Smaliy” ^[38] .

During the preliminary investigation, Zaverukha cut the veins in her hand in protest against her detention, cut the veins in her hand in the courtroom during the trial; after passing out during the trial, she was hospitalized ^{[40] [41] [42] [43]} .

On August 20, 2015, the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine sent to the Dniprovsky District Court of Kiev an indictment on criminal proceedings against Victoria Zaveruhi, Andrei Romaniuk, Evgeni Koshelyuk, Nikolai Mnishenko and Danila Sytnikova ^[12] .

Since September 22, 2015, Tatyana Montyan has acted on the defense side in the case at the request of the relatives of Zaverukha’s husband ^[44] . On October 10, 2015, after the next court session, Montyan informed the press that in relation to her client the court had no evidence of her involvement in any crime ^[45] . On June 11, 2016, a message appeared that Zaverukha refused further services to Montian ^{[46] [47]} .

The conditions of Zaveruhi’s detention in the pre-trial detention center were checked by a deputy of the Supreme Council of Ukraine Nadezhda Savchenko . Savchenko examined the cell of Zaveruha’s stay when Zaveruha herself was taken out of the cell in advance ^[48] . The extension of the detention by the court was accompanied by large-scale actions by activists in support of Zaveruha and other suspects. The Ukrainian press widely covered the events of the confrontation between supporters of Zaveruha and police special forces under the courthouse during the trial ^[49] . In the building of the Solomensky District Court of Kiev, where the case is being examined, a fire also occurred on the night of June 13, 2016 ^[50] . On November 23, 2016, during the court’s consideration of the election of the accused Zaveruha’s preventive measure , Yury Tymoshenko, the deputy from the Popular Front faction, handcuffed himself to Victoria Zaverukha and stated that he would not leave the courtroom without the accused. Yuri Tymoshenko warned that an attempt to remove handcuffs from him would be regarded by him as an attempt on the immunity of the deputy ^{[51] [52]} . Subsequently, after the court hearing, Zaverukha was hospitalized under the supervision of deputies who promised to negotiate with the prosecutor general Yuri Lutsenko regarding the review of the Zaverukha case ^[53] .

On January 25, 2017 Zaverukha left the Lukyanovsky pre-trial detention center for freedom on bail - 1.6 million hryvnias. The deposit was made by businessman Alexei Tamrazov , who had previously made a deposit for the suspect in the murder case of writer Oles Buzina Denis Polishchuk. ^{[54] [55]} .

• Medal “For Sacrifice and Love for Ukraine” ( UOC-KP , September 2015) ^{[56] [57]}

• The first husband Igor (Oles) Olegovich Pavlov (Chernyak or Nevidomenko) (born 02.10.1992) - a soldier in the special forces unit "Azov" . ^{[31] [58] [59] [60]}

• Melnichuk, Sergey Petrovich
• Savchenko, Nadezhda Viktorovna
• Biletsky, Andrey Evgenievich
• Mosiychuk, Igor Vladimirovich
• Aidar Battalion
• Azov Division

• Siohan, Stéphane. Une guerre si particulière (фр.) // ELLE France : журнал. — 2014. — 14 Ноябрь. — P. 150—161 . — ISSN 0013-6298 .
• Лисица Анна. Interview with Vita Zaverukha from the "courtroom" (англ.) = Интервью с Витой Заверухой из зала суда // Провокатор : газета. — 2015. — 26 Май ( no. 1 ). Архивировано 18 марта 2017 года.

• Тарасенко Григорий . История Виты Завирухи: Преступление и наказание (неопр.) . Антифашист. Информационное Агентство (24 июля 2015).
• Уманьска Дарина . Батьки Віти Заверухи: Вона нічого не знала, що там в Києві трапилось (укр.) . depo.ua (9 июня 2015).
• Левин Макс . Солдат Джейн (неопр.) . LB.ua . Институт Горшенина (27 сентября 2014).
•   Вита Заверуха Beauty and the Beast