Editor’s Note: DTEK issued the following response to the op-ed below: “DTEK works in full compliance with the legislation of Ukraine, timely implements the decisions of the legislative, executive, and judicial authorities. In November 2019, the Donetsk Court of Appeal issued a ruling granting the claim of Valentina Buchok. According to the court’s decision, in January 2020, DTEK Donetsk Grids fully complied with the court’s decision and made Valentina Buchok all payments stipulated by the court’s decision. From the moment of the above decision to the present day (June 2020), there are no open court proceedings between Valentina Buchok and DTEK Donetsk Grids. Since 2018, Valentina Buchok has not been in an employment relationship with DTEK.”
Valentina Buchok is recovering in hospital after treading on a grenade left outside her home in the Donetsk Oblast. The police are treating this as attempted murder. It is to be hoped that this time they investigate properly as this is the second attack on the former hostage who was savagely tortured and imprisoned in Russian-controlled Donbas and can provide vital testimony against the Russian-controlled militants and against the company linked to Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov.
