Ukraine in early June 2020: policing scandals and security incidents
A look back at reports from 30 May to 4 June 2020 that shaped the picture of public order in Ukraine.
What did the news from Ukraine look like on 5 June 2020? The reports of the preceding days were dominated by public-order and security stories, with a few lighter items alongside them.
Policing under scrutiny
On 4 June 2020 it was reported that a gang of police officers had been exposed in Pavlohrad, in Dnipropetrovsk region. The group was organised by Dmytro Serdiuk, head of the local police station. The report points to a problem of internal integrity: the person in charge of a local unit was named as the organiser of the group.
Two days earlier, on 2 June, shooting broke out at the Seventh Kilometre market in Odesa. Two people were wounded and ten were detained. Both episodes concerned the maintenance of public order, although the reports link them in no other way.
A serviceman taken
The security situation was also in view. At about 05:00 on 30 May, at the Berloha observation post on the line of control with Crimea, a senior soldier, Yevhen Dobrynskyi, was abducted by Russia while on duty. The report describes the incident as taking place during the service of a Ukrainian serviceman at the post.
Natural and cultural notes
On 1 June two earthquakes with epicentres near the town of Dolyna in Ivano-Frankivsk region were recorded, with magnitudes of 3.2 and 2.7. No one was hurt.
On 31 May the winners of the Golden Firebird award for 2020 were announced online. Oleh Vynnyk was named singer of the year and Nastya Kamenskykh singer of the year among women.
What the picture shows
Taken together, the reports from the days before 5 June 2020 show a country where law-enforcement conduct and public safety drew attention in the same days as a serviceman's abduction on the line of control. The reported detentions in Odesa and the exposure of the Pavlohrad group were the concrete outcomes of police work in those days.
