In Kherson, the day after the "referendum" killed conductor Yuri Kerpatenko

Eyewitnesses told The Times that the FSB came to his house - after he allegedly kicked urns for "voting"

At the end of September, shortly after the “referendum on joining Russia”, the occupied part of the Kherson region, Yuri Kerpatenko, the main conductor of the regional Philharmonic, disappeared in Kherson. According to the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine and the media , the Russian military killed Kerpatenko. But neither the exact date nor the circumstances of his death were known until recently. On November 19, the British newspaper The Times released material in which eyewitnesses first told how Yuri Kerpatenko died.

The 46-year-old Yuri Kerpatenko was killed on September 28, three weeks after the event in the Kherson Regional Philharmonic, which was asked by representatives of the occupying authorities, but he refused. Eyewitnesses told The Times that a group of six people shot the conductor in the entrance at the door of his apartment.

People from the pro -Russian administration of Kherson repeatedly invited Kerpatenko to hold a concert in the Philharmonic, but he did not agree. “He has a very hot character, he is an emotional person. And if he said “no” once, for the second time he will not repeat, ”recalls the conductor Anatoly, the main technician of the Kherson musical and drama theater named after Nikolai Kulisha, who worked with Kerpatenko for many years and saw him shortly before his death.

Former colleagues and neighbors of the conductor, as well as the Kherson police and representatives of the prosecutor’s office, say that Kerpatenko criticized the occupation authorities and the Russian military almost until the last day, and also made posts in support of Ukraine on his Facebook page, even though they were delayed and tortured for such residents of the city.

In addition, as the interlocutors of The Times say, Kerpatenko abused alcohol. He began to drink back in 2011, after his wife, violinist Elena Moseichuk died of oncological illness. The neighbor Kerpatenko saw how on September 27, on the day of the so -called referendum, the conductor and his girlfriend Marina Acekhovskaya, in a state of strongly intoxication, kicked the urn for voting.

The next day, September 28, at seven in the morning, six men in Russian military uniform began to knock on the door of Kerpatenko’s apartment and loudly demanded that they be opened. The 75-year-old neighbor of the conductor Raya heard a noise and looked out of her apartment. In response, the men told her that she would close the door, and then they would not touch her. Paradise did this, but soon heard two shots, followed by an automatic queue.

When the neighbor again opened the door and looked into the porch, she saw Kerpatenko’s body on the floor next to his apartment - according to her, in his hand there was a “certain object”, which one of the Russians who came to the conductor called a machine gun.

Another neighbor Kerpatenko, 64-year-old Lyudmila, claims that the men who came to the conductor were from the FSB. According to her, the Russian military, which aimed at the upper windows, as well as a police car, stood on the street near the house - in total, she saw about 20 people, both in military uniform and in civilian clothes.

According to the publication, the conductor’s body lay in the entrance until noon. After he was taken away, no one else saw him and does not know where it is.

Kerpatenko’s friend Marina Acekhovskaya was injured as a result of shooting, she was hospitalized. Today she lives alone with a cat in the conductor’s apartment.

All the interlocutors of The Times are sure that Kerpatenko had no weapons at home. They believe that the Russians shot the conductor, and then put a machine gun in his hand. Also, colleagues and neighbors Kerpatenko do not believe that he was killed for refusing to hold a concert in the Philharmonic - in their opinion, the Russians were not satisfied with the active pro -Ukrainian position of the conductor.