Lawmaker Andriy Teteruk, a war hero who led the Myrotvorets Battalion, allegedly had a scuffle with his colleague Oleksandra Kuzhel involving a glass bottle that sent her to the hospital with trauma to the head on Nov. 5.
Head of Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk’s People’s Front parliamentary faction, Teteruk scuffled with Kuzhel of Yulia Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna Party, after meeting with the parliamentary speaker together with other lawmakers.
Witness accounts of the incident vary, however.
According to Batkivshchyna’s press service, Teteruk hit Kuzhel on the head with a glass water bottle. An ambulance subsequently took Kuzhel from parliament to the Institute of Neurosurgery, where she was diagnosed with a concussion of moderate severity.
Teteruk, 42, who fought in the Battle of Illovaysk in Ukraine’s Donbas, apologized for his behavior but didn’t specify what happened.
“A conflict occurred for which I’m very sorry,” he wrote in a Facebook post.
In comments to various Ukrainian media he described his actions as “self-defense” and the incident as “a provocation.” He said that Kuzhel, 62, started beating him with her purse and then accidentally hit her head on the glass bottle of water that he was holding.
“I did not beat her,” he said in a video commentary published by Ukrainian News on Nov. 6. “There is a video that can prove my words.”
Footage from parliament’s surveillance camera was released after the scuffle. However, it only showed the aftermath of the clash: lawmakers of Batkivshchyna party attacking Teteruk and later being calmed down by party leader Tymoshenko. Kuzhel is seen in the video standing with her hand pressed to her forehead.
The footage from the camera inside the parliament’s offices shows the fight between lawmakers that followed the incident between Kuzhel and Teteruk.
The discussion that led to the quarrel between the lawmakers was about parliament failing to adopt a bill against labor discrimination, which would’ve prohibited firing someone based on their sexual orientation. Adoption of this law is one of the preconditions to establish visa-free travel with the European Union.
Teteruk voted for the law, Kuzhel didn’t.
Serhiy Vlasenko, Batkivshchyna party lawmaker and witness of the conflict, told Ukrainska Pravda that Teteruk made insulting comments concerning members of the Batkivshchyna Party and Kuzhel personally before intentionally hitting her with the bottle.
Following the conflict, Batkivshchyna demanded that Teteruk resigned as lawmaker. He said in parliament on Nov. 6 that he was ready to be punished if found guilty.
Women lawmakers demand resignation of their colleague, lawmaker Andriy Teteruk, in Verkhovna Rada on Nov. 6.
To punish him, however, law enforcers would first have to convince parliament to vote to lift Teteruk’s prosecutorial immunity as a lawmaker.
This is not the first conflict between Teteruk and Kuzhel. On Nov. 3, Kuzhel tried to interrupt Teteruk’s speech in parliament.
Kuzhel tries to stop Teteruk’s speech in parliament on Nov. 3.
Before being elected lawmaker in 2014, Teteruk led the Myrotvorets (Peacemaker) Battalion, a special police unit that fought combined Russian-separatist troops. He first joined the war as a volunteer.
Kuzhel has been a Batkivshchyna party lawmaker since 2012.
Batkivshchyna’s press service didn’t know whether Kuzhel filed a police report.
However, Interior Ministry spokesperson Artem Shevchenko said there will be a criminal case regarding the conflict between Kuzhel and Teteruk.
“Kuzhel was injured, a head trauma. A medical institution will establish the severity of the trauma. All the participants and witnesses of the incident will be questioned. The legal qualification will be given later,” Shevchenko wrote on his Facebook page on Nov. 6.
The press service of the General Prosecutor’s Office told the Kyiv Post that they still have no information whether the criminal case will be launched and whether the prosecutor’s office plans to demand that Teteruk’s immunity be stripped.
Kyiv Post staff writer Nataliya Trach can be reached at [email protected]
