Pro-Ukrainian activists recover after attack near Odessa

Boyko, from Zhytomyr Oblast, was a volunteer guard at the checkpoint near Odessa, established to prevent pro-Russian militants from coming to the city from the east.

Boyko was one of seven people who got injured when a grenade was thrown into the checkpoint on the night of April 25. Injured men say the grenade was thrown across the barricade from a passing car. Police also say the grenade was most likely thrown from a car.

Russian media reported the accident as a result of reckless behavior with weapons, outraging the victims. 

“You know what they said on TV? That we were just practicing with a grenade and it exploded! For Christ’s sake, can you believe that?” Boyko says.

The checkpoint on the Ovidiopol Road, not far from the famous 7th Kilometer market in Odessa, was initiated by the new governor of Odessa Oblast Volodymyr Nemirovskiy. The governor called on Maidan Self-Defense – the paramilitary patriotic units – to cooperate with road police and guard the checkpoints to prevent subversive groups coming into the city. 

Boyko and three more victims had to be brought to Brovary near Kyiv after the hospital in Odessa refused to take them because they weren’t Odessa natives. Boyko says hospital staff was calling them “bums.” After five hours spent without aid, they were taken to the hospital in Brovary that was known to help EuroMaidan activists.

“I think they brought us there just so police could interrogate us and then they just kicked us out even without bondages,” Boyko says. 

He is the most seriously injured one, but it was only in Brovary where he started getting help. The young man ensures that hospital nurse in Odessa denied to help even when he asked for a piss-pot. 

“She said I should have been more careful and should now walk myself,” he says.

Odessa City Health Department said in a statement on April 28 that all the victims from the checkpoint grenade attack got all the possible treatment and left to Brovary willingly.

Another victim, 53-year old Mykola Mistryanu from Vinnytsa Oblast was the only one who got help back in Odessa. 

“But they had no choice, I got my artery cut and the blood was fountaining from the wound,” he says. After the surgery Mistryanu was left in the hospital corridor.

Boyko still cannot walk and will have to stay at the hospital for at least two weeks, although his friends are getting better already and expect to leave hospital “the sooner the better.”

“Maybe even tomorrow,” says Ihor Pavlovych, 43, checkpoint commander from Luhansk. After he checks out from the hospital, Pavlovych wants to come back to the same checkpoint near Odessa. He says the checkpoint is an important one. 

“Very convenient way to get into the city for Russian separatists, so it has always been fun there for us,” he smiles and says they had to be really aggressive with checking cars. 

“We’ve got some people with arms and just aggressive Russians, but what is the worst – some of them were the same people – we would give them to police and then meet again in two days at the same checkpoint,” Pavlovych says.

“This time we’ll handle that without police,” Pavlovych’s deputy Mistryanu says.

Military expert Dmitry Tymchuk says the explosion could be just a move of inadequate locals, “but on the other hand the explosion could be planned to distract the attention from the East,” he said in his comment to Segodnya newspaper. 

The activists say Odessa residents were supportive, though it is hard to say that the majority supports either side.

 “Odessa is a very special city,” Boyko says. “Some bring us food, others – grenades.”

Kyiv Post staff writer Daryna Shevchenko can be reached at [email protected]