Road accident involving Servant of the People MP: media mass delete news, party makes no comment, police open investigation

A People's Deputy allegedly caused a road accident while intoxicated.

According to media reports, on August 23, People's Deputy Oleksandr Trukhin of the Servant of the People faction was intoxicated and caused a road accident on the way from Poltava to Kyiv. However, later about 30 media outlets deleted reports of this accident, in which six people were injured. This is reported by Radio Svoboda, Center News, the online outlet Poltavshchina, and a source at the Interior Ministry cited by Ukrainska Pravda.

Trukhin heads the Servant of the People party cell in Poltava region. On the morning of August 23 in Poltava, he took part in ceremonies marking the Day of the State Flag.

According to Poltavshchina, after the celebrations the MP, together with Oleh Synehubov, head of the regional state administration, and Oleksandr Belenky, head of the regional council, had lunch at the Lilia restaurant in Poltava from about 11:00 to 12:00 and drank whiskey. After those present remarked that he still had to drive, Trukhin allegedly joked that "our laws have strict penalties, but they are not mandatory to follow."

In addition, the MP's car stopped on the highway at the Caspian restaurant (village of Lobkova Balka, beyond Khorol), which belongs to Fakhraddin Mukhtarov, head of the Servant of the People faction in the Poltava regional council.

At 15:45 on the Boryspil highway at the entrance to Kyiv, a crash involving Trukhin occurred. As Center News reports, his Audi did not keep a safe distance and at high speed drove into a Ford, which in turn rammed a Daewoo.

As a result of the crash, six people sustained bodily injuries. Among the injured are two children, Luciano Luchi, head of the referees committee of the Football Federation of Ukraine, and his assistant Roman Lishen.

Police confirmed the road accident but did not name the participants. Police spokeswoman Yulia Girdvilis said that a criminal case had been opened over the incident under Part 1 of Article 286 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (violation of road safety rules or operation of vehicles by persons driving vehicles).

A source at the Interior Ministry told Ukrainska Pravda that the case is being handled by the State Bureau of Investigation. According to the publication, patrol police established that Trukhin was the one behind the wheel. Witnesses to the accident claim that two or three other people were in the car with the MP, all of them intoxicated.

The Ukrainian Football Federation confirmed the accident almost immediately. It said after the crash that Luciano Luchi and his assistant were in one of the Kyiv hospitals. As a result of the accident they lost consciousness. After hospitalization they underwent surgery, and their injuries can be described as moderate in severity.

Chief editor of Center News Olga Vytak said that she received "letters of happiness" by email offering, "on a commercial basis," to remove the material about the crash involving the MP. Editor-in-chief of Tribuna Oleh Shcherbakov stated that he too received an email offer to take down the news about Trukhin in exchange for compensation.

Sports journalist Kostiantyn Andriyuk said that sites were offered less than $200 to remove the news.

More than 30 media outlets that reported on the accident deleted or edited the news. Among them are Football 24, UA-Football, Isport, Meta-Ratings, 1927.kiev.ua, "Dynamo Kyiv from Shurik", "UNIAN", Sport.ua, Football.ua, "Segodnya", "Antikor", "Glavcom", UNN, "Argumenty i Fakty", Comments.ua, Depo.ua, "Vesti", "Fakty", TSN, "Obozrevatel", "Telegraf", "Gordon», "Komsomolskaya Pravda in Ukraine», "Fraza", "Argument", NewsWeek, "Vesti-UA", Bigmir, "Ukrainski Novyny", Golos.UA, "Glavk", "Rezonans", "Sudebno-yuridicheskaya gazeta".

Ukrainska Pravda has obtained video of the crash involving Trukhin, which people tried to "hide". It shows the crash site, the damaged cars and the injured.

The video also shows Trukhin himself, in a white shirt and dark jacket. He talks to police officers, takes things out of the car and approaches an injured man. Emergency service workers are visible at the scene.

During the filming, journalists had a dispute with police officers, who demanded that they leave the scene of a criminal offense and move away from the part of the road where the accident occurred.

The police officer said he was "restricting journalists' access" and demanded they move back 15 meters. The journalists reminded him that in this way he was preventing them from carrying out their professional duties.

SBI spokeswoman Olga Chikanova told Ukrainska Pravda that the State Bureau of Investigation is not investigating the criminal proceedings regarding the crash involving "Servant of the People" MP Trukhin, which people tried to "hide".

Olga Chikanova
SBI spokeswoman

The investigation of this case is being handled by the National Police. At present, no official information has been received by the SBI.

The SBI investigates cases involving officials. As of now, it is still unclear whether Trukhin was behind the wheel of the car involved in the crash.