You're reading: Update: Warring Donetsk businessmen bring their conflict to Kyiv

Donetsk entrepreneur Vladimir Razumovsky on Aug. 2 appealed to President Viktor Yanukovych on YouTube for assistance in battling local thugs, whom he alleges are attempting to put his decorative plant factory out of business.

Razumovsky’s nearly 10-minute YouTube appeal features surreptitiously recorded video footage of Oleksandr Grupsky, a self-proclaimed former law-enforcement official turned Donetsk businessman, who explains why it is hopeless to resist being run out of business. In the video, Grupsky emphasizes to Razumovsky that he has close ties with local law-enforcement agencies and the pro-presidential Party of Regions.

Grupsky, who heads the TEK greenhouse adjacent to Razumosky’s decorative plant factory, has denied any wrongdoing and accuses Razumovsky of mounting a public relations campaign to expand his business at TEK’s expense.

Both men were invited to appear on Aug. 13 in Kyiv at a press briefing to talk about the case and how local law-enforcement authorities are handling the conflict.