Protesters clash with police outside the office of the President of Ukraine

Near the building of the office of the President of Ukraine in Kiev, where a protest action is taking place against the verdict of the Odessa activist Sergei Sternenko, clashes between protesters and law enforcement officers began, the police used tear gas. This was reported on February 23 by the Strana.ua edition.

More than a thousand protesters gathered in support of Sternenko. They tried to break through the police cordons protecting the office of the President of Ukraine.

Among the law enforcement officers there is one injured policeman. During the clashes between the nationalists and the security forces, several people were detained.

The action at the office of the President of Ukraine was planned for 20:00 local time (21.00 Moscow time). The court sentenced Sternenko to 7 years in prison, having found him guilty of abducting the deputy of the Limansky village council Sergei Shcherbich. Half of all property belonging to him was confiscated from the activist.

Shcherbych himself wrote a statement to the police that he had been kidnapped and tortured by nationalists led by Sternenko. For the release, they demanded 300 thousand hryvnia (about 796.8 thousand rubles at the current exchange rate). A criminal case was initiated, which was not investigated until 2019.

According to the portal, the nationalist was charged with Part 2 of Art. 146 (“Abduction of a person”), part 2 of Art. 187 (“Robbery”), part 1 of Art. 263 (“Illegal handling of weapons”) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The court decided to take him into custody right in the courtroom and place him in a pre-trial detention center.

In the summer of 2020, Sternenko was summoned for interrogation at the SBU, where he was notified of suspicion of premeditated murder and illegal carrying of knives.

It was about the events of 2018. Then Sternenko was attacked, he fought back, one of the attackers died. As the investigation decided, the man’s actions were not only self-defense, since he caught up with one of the attacking people and mortally wounded him.