Two cases that tested trust in Ukraine's law enforcement
A retrospective look at reports from 23 May 2020 that placed police conduct and the death of a lawmaker in the same public conversation.
What did Ukrainians learn about the state of their law enforcement in the days before 25 May 2020? Reports from 23 May 2020 pointed to two very different cases, each of which raised questions about accountability.
The first concerned Kaharlyk, in Kyiv region. Police officers there were reported to have beaten two people inside a police station and to have raped a woman several times. The allegations described abuse inside the very institution meant to protect the public, in a building where detainees and complainants have little protection beyond oversight.
The second concerned the capital. Valeriy Davydenko, an independent member of the Verkhovna Rada, was found shot dead in Kyiv. The Ministry of Internal Affairs confirmed that he had been found dead in his office with a gunshot wound to the head.
Why the two stories mattered together
The two cases are not linked in any report, and nothing in them suggests a connection. Yet they arrived together, and each put a question to the same system. In Kaharlyk, the issue was whether officers could be held to account for violence inside a station. In the case of Davydenko, the issue was how a lawmaker's death in his office would be explained, a question that rested with the ministry that confirmed it.
For reform-minded observers, both cases concern the credibility of institutions. Public confidence in policing depends on how swiftly and transparently allegations against officers are examined. Confidence in the handling of a parliamentarian's death depends on the same qualities.
The reports from that weekend settled none of these questions. They did show what was at stake for Ukraine's interior institutions as 25 May 2020 approached.
