OLEKSANDR KALIFITSKY
Previous position: head of the Chief Directorate for Investigating Especially Important Cases, Prosecutor General’s Office
New position: prosecutor of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast
Oleksandr Kalifitsky is considered to be close to First Deputy Prosecutor General Renat Kuzmin, who has been dubbed “hawk for the opposition.” Kalifitsky headed the Chief Directorate for Investigating Especially Important Cases in the Prosecutor General’s Office. He was personally responsible for directing the prosecution in the criminal cases against former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko. Many of his colleagues say his cynicism sets him apart. In 2008, his name was brought up in connection with a case fabricated against Viktor Sandyha, an investigator from the Prosecutor General’s Office who disclosed large-scale embezzlement committed by Donetsk coalmine barons in the Makiyivvhuhillia mine. Kalifitsky charged Sandyha, who had 22 years of experience in investigation, with stealing … a mobile phone from a deputy Makiyivvuhillia director, one of the accused in the case. Sandyha was fired and barely escaped imprisonment. He proved his innocence only after titanic effort.
SERHIY VOICHENKO
Previous position: investigator in especially important cases, Prosecutor General’s Office.
New position: First Deputy Prosecutor of Ivano-Frankivsk
Serhiy Voichenko followed Kalifitsky to take a high position in Transcarpathia. He headed a group of investigators who put Lutsenko behind bars. Voichenko distinguished himself though the use of “dictation” for witnesses and twisting their testimonies, as was revealed in court. Strangely, no information about his promotion has been posted in the Appointments section on the official site of the Prosecutor General’s Office.
In early February 2012, in his office in Ivano-Frankivsk, Voichenko was handed a copy of a lawsuit filed by Lutsenko in a U.S. federal court. Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka, several of his subordinates, and Voichenko are defendants in the new case.
VLADYSLAV HRYSHCHENKO
Previous position: head of the Directorate for Crime Detection, Prosecutor General’s Office
New position: Deputy Prosecutor of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast
The media call Hryshchenko Kalifitsky's right-hand man. Hryshchenko has followed his boss everywhere since they met in Kyiv. When Kalifitsky was promoted to the head of the Chief Investigation Directorate in the Prosecutor General’s Office, Hryshchenko was appointed head of the Directorate for Crime Detection there. The Hryshchenko-Kalifitsky duo was actively involved in producing cases against Tymoshenko and Lutsenko. When Kalifitsky was moved to Ivano-Frankivsk, Hryshchenko followed him a short time later, on October 20, 2011.
OLEKSANDR NECHVOHLOD
Previous position: investigator in the Prosecutor General’s Office
New position: Deputy Prosecutor in Chernihiv Oblast
Nechvohlod's career rose rapidly on a crest of political cases. When materials about a beating of MP Oles Doniy in the Verkhovna Rada during the ratification of the Kharkiv Treaties on April 27, 2010, reached his office, he soft-pedalled the matter. He disregarded appeals from Doniy’s legal representatives and refused to open a criminal case against the people who nearly shattered the MP’s skull. His ability to “correctly” react to such situations must have been noticed, and he was transferred from the Kyiv Prosecutor’s Office to the Chief Investigative Directorate in the Prosecutor General’s Office where he was immediately assigned the gas case against Tymoshenko. The former prime minister used Nechvohlod’s discordant-sounding surname to present him in her tweets as the epitome of unscrupulous investigators in the country. He was appointed Deputy Prosecutor of Chernihiv Oblast a short time after Tymoshenko’s guilty verdict was delivered, on December 23, 2011.
MYKOLA HRABYK
Previous position: investigator in the Security Service of Ukraine
New position: chief of the Department of Investigations in the Kharkiv Office of the SBU
Hrabyk was actively involved in investigations linked to the trials against ex-top manager of Naftohaz Ihor Didenko and ex-chief of the Customs Service Anatoliy Makarenko. He was later directly responsible for directing investigative actions in the gas case against Tymoshenko. Hrabyk was promoted to Major of Justice after the Didenko case. The president awarded him with the For Courage order, 3rd degree, on Independence Day. A short time after the verdict in the Tymoshenko case was issued, he was appointed chief of the Department of Investigations in the Kharkiv Office of the SBU.
FORECAST
The Ukrainian Week believes that more figures involved in the trials against ex-government officials are very likely to soon be promoted. These may include the prosecutors in the Tymoshenko case (Lilia Frolova, Mykhailo Shorin, Oleksandr Mykytenko and Andriy Bairachny) and in the Lutsenko case (Viktor Klymenko, Dmytro Loban and Yevhen Zinchenko).
