Vladimir Borisovich Tzemakh ( callsign “Borisych”; born July 4, 1961 , Snezhnoye ) - a serviceman of the Donetsk People’s Republic , a former Soviet military. In 2014 - the commander of the DPR air defense company in the city of Snezhnoye , participated in the hostilities in the area from where the Boeing 777 of flight MH17 was shot down .
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In June 2019, the SBU during a special operation detained Tsemakh in Snezhnoye and took him out of the territory occupied by the rebels. He was under investigation in Kiev , but on September 5, the court released Zemakh from custody, and on September 7 he was transferred to Russia as part of an exchange of prisoners.
Biography
Born July 4, 1961 in the year in Snezhnoye [1] .
He graduated from the Poltava Higher Anti-Aircraft Missile Command School [2] .
He served in the Armed Forces of the USSR , participated in the hostilities during the Afghan war , where he was the operator or commander of a self-propelled anti-aircraft gun ZSU-23-4 [3] .
The war in eastern Ukraine
Since the spring of 2014, he took an active part in the hostilities in eastern Ukraine on the side of the forces of the Donetsk People’s Republic . The first combat post, according to the then Minister of Defense of the DPR Igor Girkin (Strelkov) , was the commander of the calculation of mobile units ZU-23-2 in the vicinity of the village of Semenovka during the battles for Slavyansk [2] .
He was the commander of a separate company of air defense in the city of Snezhnoye since its formation on June 7, 2014 [2] . It was from the area of the city of Snezhnoye (the village of Pervomaisky ), according to investigators, on July 17, 2014 a Boeing 777 of flight MH17 was shot down .
In the Russian video, Zemakh personally conducted a film crew of the crash sites of the Malaysian Boeing and talked about the downing of the Su-25 , which took place on July 16. From his story, Bellingcat concluded that Zemakh had information about the movement and was directly involved in hiding after the disaster of the Buk air defense system , from which the Boeing was shot down [3] .
According to the Ukrainian journalist Yuriy Butusov , the company of Tsemakh during July - August 2014, together with the Armed forces of Russia, attacked planes and helicopters of the Armed forces of Ukraine . According to Butusov, as a company commander, Zemakh knew field commanders of militants in the area of the city of Snezhnoye and possessed information about the roles of Girkin (Strelkov) and the Russian military in battles on the Russian-Ukrainian border [2] .
According to the statements of Girkin (Strelkov), during July - August 2014, the Zemakh company had several armaments of the ZU-23-2 and NSV-12.7 Utes anti-aircraft guns, however, it did not have weapons capable of shooting down the Boeing [2] .
According to TheBabel, Tsemakh organized the supply of military equipment, heavy weapons, small arms and ammunition from Russia to the territory of the Donetsk region and their distribution among DNR militants in the city of Snezhnoye [2] [3] .
According to Butusov, in October 2014 Tsemakh received the rank of lieutenant colonel and was promoted to deputy commander of the air defense brigade of the 1st separate motorized rifle brigade of the 1st army corps of the Russian Armed Forces in Donbass [2] .
In March 2015, Tsemakh was released and sent to the military commissariat of the DPR in the city of Donetsk. In March 2017, he was appointed deputy battalion commander of the military unit 08819, but subsequently was prematurely transferred to the reserve by age [2] .
Detention and arrest
On June 27, 2019, as part of a special operation of the Security Service of Ukraine, Zemakh was arrested while intoxicated in his own apartment in Snezhnoye and taken to Ukraine-controlled territory via Maryinka [2] [3] . According to the publication “Peter and Mazepa”, the operation was prepared by the counterintelligence of the SBU for 2 years, and agents - previously recruited citizens of Ukraine from Ukraine — also detained and exported [4] . Various sources subsequently also reported that Ukraine’s military intelligence also participated in the Zemakh’s detention operation, during which senior sergeant of the 74th reconnaissance battalion Alexander Kolodyazhny was fatally wounded, and Dmitry Gerzhan, a soldier who lost his leg, left the territory in the Maryinka area. were blown up on anti-personnel mines [5] [6] [7] .
On June 28, Zemakh was taken to Kiev , and the very next day, the Shevchenkovsky District Court of Kiev arrested him for two months. Charges were brought against him under Article 258-3 of Part 1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (“Creating a terrorist group or terrorist organization”, from 8 to 15 years in prison).
On September 5, Tsemakh was released from custody, although 2 days before that, on September 3, the court extended the arrest of Tsemakh [2] [3] . The release was due to a request from a lawyer. Cemach was assigned certain personal obligations - in particular, to appear at the call of the court, but did not wear an electronic bracelet [8] . The prosecutor's office demanded that Zemakh be kept in custody, claiming that he could hide. The representative of the prosecutor’s office, Oleg Peresada, said that now Zemakh would be “quite inaccessible for an international joint investigative group.”
The prosecutor's office of the Netherlands showed considerable interest in the Zemah case, considering him a valuable witness in the investigation into the death of the Malaysian Boeing. It is believed that Zemach’s testimony in a court in the Netherlands can increase the legitimacy of the investigation, since in September 2019 he was the only available witness directly involved in the fighting on the spot and during the attack on the plane, he could have information about specific events and about the command chain [3] [9] .
In late August - early September, the media reported on the possible participation of Zemakh in the exchange of prisoners between Russia and Ukraine [2] . It is believed that Russia insisted on the extradition of Tsemakh, making his transfer a condition for the release of director Oleg Sentsov [1] .
Transfer to Russia
September 7, 2019 was transferred to Russia as part of the exchange of prisoners in the format “35 to 35” [10] .
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 Volodimir Tzemakh: de vіn at once і chi true vіd ny nogo lie down obmіn Sentsova
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 The operation of the Ukrainian special forces was zuhval: Who is Volodymyr Tzemakh and who’s been talking about the second half - 112.ua
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 “I hid this # @ &”: the arrest of Vladimir Zemakh and his significance for the case MH17 - Bellingcat (Russian)
- ↑ Buk and Zemakh: details of the SBU special operation to export a witness of the Russian downing of MH17 in the sky over the Donbass . Peter and Mazepa . Date of treatment September 6, 2019.
- ↑ Boyovika Tzemakh’s destined to live with the life of the rosary Oleksandr Kolodyazhny . LB.ua. Date of treatment September 7, 2019.
- ↑ Legendary Rosary. Scho vіdomo about Kolodyazhny, with the price of life was shrouded in a way by the Nina the emissed Tsemakh (English) . TEXT . Date of treatment September 7, 2019.
- ↑ Christmas season was celebrated by Oleksandr Kolodyazhny - UA: DNIPRO Neopr . dp.suspilne.media . Date of treatment September 7, 2019.
- ↑ Court of Appeal of the order of Varti Zemakh, a kind of a man, a ymovarno, even a Ros_ya (Ukrainian) . Radio Liberty . Date of treatment September 6, 2019.
- ↑ Pid hour tricycle of Tsemakh zhoden pracіvnik SBU without bothering - Rechnitsya (English) (September 6, 2019). Date of treatment September 7, 2019.
- ↑ Ukraine and Russia exchanged prisoners. The plane landed with the Ukrainians at the Boryspil airport, after a meeting of the 35 released, they were taken to the Feofania hospital . thebabel.net (September 7, 2019). Date of treatment September 7, 2019.