Anti-corruption activist Oleksandr Lemenov was assaulted by two people in Kyiv on Nov. 8.
He said he had been hit on the head, and the attackers used brass knuckles and pepper spray against him. The attack took place at 7:45 a.m. at 2 Maksymovych Street, he said.
“If someone thinks that one attack can stop my struggle for a new Ukraine, it’s a waste of time,” he wrote on Facebook. “…They ran away like cowards,” he added.
The police said they had categorized the attack as hooliganism and started an investigation.
Lemenov, the head of anti-corruption watchdog StateWatch and a former anti-corruption expert at the Reanimation Package of Reforms, has consistently exposed high-level corruption in Ukraine.
Currently a member of one of the vetting commissions at the Prosecutor General’s Office, he has also lashed out at corrupt prosecutors.
Lemenov also had a recent conflict with Anatoly Shariy, a Ukrainian-born blogger based in Europe who has backed pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine.
Specifically, Shariy accused Lemenov of being gay, having undeclared income, being friends with Oleksandr Hranovsky — a former lawmaker from ex-President Petro Poroshenko’s party — and having a concealed Israeli passport. Lemenov denied the accusations.
On Oct. 24, Lemenov wrote on Facebook that he was “saying hi” to Shariy’s wife Olga in an apparent reference to their being acquainted. On Oct. 26, he published what he said was his Facebook chat correspondence with Olga Shariy.
“I don’t care what you write about me and what you do,” Olga Shariy allegedly told Lemenov. “I’m telling you that, if you write fake information about me, I will personally ask people to beat the shit out of you in Kyiv.”
Anatoly Shariy joked about the incident on Nov. 8.
“To take revenge on me, this clown started writing ambiguous comments about my wife and got a harsh response from her,” Shariy said. “The ‘statesman’ forgot to note an important fact — that the criminals shouted “this is from Shariy” with a Muscovite accent and waved the flag of the Donetsk People’s Republic.”
Anatoly Shariy and Olga Shariy did not respond to requests for comment.
There have been at least 12 killings of activists and journalists in Ukraine since the 2013–2014 EuroMaidan Revolution, which ousted President Viktor Yanukovych. There have also been about a hundred violent attacks on activists and journalists since the revolution, including at least six attempted murders.
None of those who ordered the murders have been found. Only in half of the cases were suspected hitmen identified. Despite this, former Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko has denied accusations that cases were being sabotaged.
