On Nov. 4, an event of remembrance was held on one-year anniversary of civil activist Kateryna Gandziuk’s death, who died on Nov. 4, 2018, from the consequences of a brutal acid attack she had suffered three months earlier.
Gandziuk was a local official and civil rights and anti-corruption activist campaigner, who exposed corruption in her hometown of Kherson. After graduating the University of Kherson she was elected as a deputy of the regional council of the Kherson Oblast and as an advisor to the mayor of Kherson. She participated in both the Orange Revolution in 2004 and the EuroMaidan Revolution in 2014. In November of 2015 she became the acting manager of affairs at the Kherson’s City Council’s executive committee.
Ukraine has not had a great history when it comes to the safety of its civic activists. From the year 2017-2018 there were more than 50 attacks on civic activists in Ukraine.
A group of Gandziuk’s friends and activists, known as the “Who killed Katya Gandziuk” initiative, organized the Nov. 4 event called “One Year Without Katya” outside of the Presidential Office. It was an event of remembrance, but also a call to the continued fight against the corruption that Gandziuk had been murdered for, and a demand to prosecute the organizers of her murder. With the new presidential administration, people wonder what will happen next.
President Volodymyr Zelensky tweeted three hours after the start of the event, declaring: “A year without Kateryna Gandziuk. All perpetrators will be found and punished. I promise.”
Gandziuk condemned corruption in the regional department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. She criticised the work of law enforcement agencies as well as corruption with the local police.
On July 31, 2018, a man threw one liter of sulfuric acid on Gandziuk in front of her house. She suffered severe burns on more than 40% of her body. She was transferred to a special medical institution in Kyiv where she stayed for 96 days until her death. She did not trust Ukraine’s Interior Ministry and personally asked former Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko to transfer her case from the National Police to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).
In the initial stages of the investigation, the police demonstrated negligence, arresting the wrong person. Eventually, the police arrested five suspects, however, other suspects were able to flee.
Oleksiy Levin, a suspected organizer of the crime, has fled Ukraine and is on an international wanted list. The five men who carried out the attack were given prison sentences of three to six years, although some sentences have been lessened.
Vladyslav Manger, the former head of the Kherson regional council was initially suspected of organizing the murder, but it too was lessened to the suspicion of ordering bodily harm.
Alongside Manger, Andriy Gordeev, the former governor of Kherson Oblast and Yevhen Ryshchuk, Gordeev’s deputy, were also suspected of being involved. Manger represented Yulia Tymoshenko’s political party, and Gordeev and Ryshchuk were formerly in President Petro Poroshenko’s party.
Gandziuk’s father Viktor Gandziuk, also present at the anniversary protest on Nov. 4, told the Kyiv Post he thinks that authorities helped the organizers of the attack on his daughter.
“I believe that law enforcement warned Levin and helped him cross the border and know where he is currently,” he said.
Kateryna Chmil, who is a civil servant, stated that the case of Gandziuk is an important symbol, but it’s meaning is yet to be defined.
“Either it’s a symbol that the country is owned fully by oligarchs and criminals, or a symbol of the human rights fight with winning some rights in the end,” she said.
Oksana Nadyak, who works in the private sector in agriculture, said that it is important for the civil society in Ukraine to continue to play this important role that it has been playing since Euromaidan. “This brutal case is about if this will continue or not. It is definitely about intimidation, not only intimidating Katya but intimidating the whole civil society.”
Antonina Kabanova, who works in advertising, came to the event because it was important to not “wipe away and forget this.”
“If something this important will go away and will be forgotten, then nothing will progress,” she said. “Prosecutors are talking and changing, the presidents are changing, but there is no decision in place. Yet the perpetrators of the attack somehow were released or had their sentences changed. It’s scary that we live in this kind of country.”
Solemn music played as videos and presentations about Gandziuk’s case and the following investigation were shown on a projector. Supporters gathered around Viktor Gandziuk as he spoke and lit candles at the base of his daughter’s makeshift memorial on the steps of the Presidential Office.
Viktor Gandziuk wants to say there is hope. He met with the president, and heard the declaration of the new prosecutor general.
“But those hopes are disappearing more and more,” he said. “And what I think that the new government is repeating the mistakes of the previous one. Everything comes to the statements, promises, but I have not seen so far any changes.”
Ivan Monzhula, a system administrator, was following Gandziuk’s case. Seeing every one of her father’s Facebook posts about her felt heart breaking, so it was important for him to come out.
“It is important that this initiative will put the pressure in the future, so more and more people will come, and when they will not be tired and disappointed and will continue to stand their ground,” he said.
Gandziuk’s father is very grateful to the people who came out last night.
“It shows that Katya’s death was not in vain,” he said, “She planted the seeds which raised like the civil society actions and disobedience, civil activity. I want to say there are less attacks on activists. And I am many times very grateful to everyone who came today. And I think if Katya were alive, she would be proud of these people.”
