Translated material
Killed instead of a wolf
Yanukovych's ally was shot by mistake
On Friday the funeral of 55-year-old Yevgeny Kushnarev , one of the leaders of the ruling Party of Regions and deputy chairman of the party faction in the Rada, will take place. To say goodbye to his comrade-in-arms, the leader of the Party of Regions, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, interrupted his visit to Turkey and flew to Ukraine. Kushnarev died yesterday in the Izyum hospital in the Kharkov region from gunshot wounds received while hunting on January 16. A penetrating wound to the abdomen and severe internal bleeding turned out to be incompatible with life. Minister of Health Yuriy Polyachenko, who arrived with a team of the best Ukrainian surgeons, was unable to save the politician. During two operations - the second lasted six hours - doctors tried to collect almost piece by piece the kidneys (one had to be removed) and the liver. Kushnarev had half a meter of intestine removed and five liters of blood transfused, but his heart stopped. There was no time to transport him to Germany for treatment.Three versions are being considered: murder by negligence, accident and intentional murder, said yesterday the first deputy head of the Kharkov department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Valentin Fesyunin. The shot was fired from a Benelli 7.62 mm carbine. The bullet and cartridge case were found. Five participants in the incident at the Gai hunting estate have been identified. So far, the investigation says that “when the hunters were already returning home and were driving in the car, a wolf jumped out onto the road and people started shooting.”
Rada deputy from the Party of Regions Dmitry Shentsev, who was on the ill-fated hunt, outlined a similar version. As Shentsev says, the hunters allegedly came to visit a certain Mr. Zavalny and his son at their dacha. In the morning we decided to hunt a wolf. They got into the car, and as soon as they saw the beast, Zavalny and Kushnarev jumped out and rushed to catch up with it. Shentsev claims that “the shot (of Zavalny, most likely - Ed .) was unintentional.” The hunter “simply didn’t get his bearings” or “thought that the animal ran,” but the bullet hit Kushnarev with a “ricochet.” According to the police, Zavalny randomly shot at the animal, which is why he inadvertently wounded Kushnarev.
According to another version, someone’s gun accidentally went off in the car and Kushnarev was wounded by a stray bullet. They say the hunters were outside when the shot was fired, and Kushnarev was in the bushes. It is unknown who shot. “I would like to believe that this is an accident. After all, Evgeny Kushnarev was vacationing with close friends during this tragedy,” Oksana Lebedeva, Mr. Kushnarev’s deputy for analytical work at the secretariat of the Party of Regions faction, told Vremya Novostey.
Kushnarev's associates are confused. The famous Ukrainian politician went through fire, water and copper pipes. From 2000 to 2004 he served as governor of the Kharkov region, and in 1996-1998 he headed the administration of ex-president Leonid Kuchma. During the 2004 presidential elections , he was among Yanukovych’s associates and participated in the congress in Severodonetsk, where it was decided that if the “orange” came to power, they would create a self-proclaimed South Ukrainian republic in the east. The new government accused Kushnarev of separatism.
He was also accused of illegally allocating funds from the regional budget for the construction of two Kharkov metro stations. The ex-governor spent several months in a pre-trial detention center in 2005, but was released due to lack of evidence of a crime. On March 21, 2006, on the eve of the parliamentary elections, an explosive package filled with nuts exploded near the office of Kushnarev, who headed the election campaign of the Party of Regions. But then the politician was not harmed.