September 19, 2014, Kyiv – The widow of Volodymyr Rybak, Horlivka municipal council’ deputy who was kidnapped and tortured to death by separatists in April 2014, made a plea to the President of Ukraine to assign the Heaven Hundred’s Hero status to Volodymyr Rybak. “I thank Petro Poroshenko for mentioning the heroic deed of the husband in his speech before the US Congress. Today, when the investigation of his murder reached the dead-lock, I ask Mr. President to personally control this issue. Awarding him with the status of the Heaven Hundred’s Hero means recognition of his struggle for integrity of Ukraine. For me personally, this is as important as a just investigation of the murder,” said Olena Rybak during the briefing at Ukraine Crisis Media Center.
By order of Igor Girgin,Volodymyr Rybak was kidnapped on April 17, 2014 by the mercenaries of the Bezler’s (a.k.a. “Bes”) illegal groupings for the reason of his attempt to install the Ukrainian flag on Horlivka’s regional state administration. He had being tortured three days and then his body was thrown on Horlivka’s outskirts. “Law enforcers were indifferent to the husband’s case for a long time. Owing to my meetings with the Prosecutor General I could retract the criminal case from Horlivka and file it to Kyiv. The materials were received only on 18.08.2014, but some materials were annihilated on site,” commented Viktor Smaliy, Olena Rybak’s lawyer.
Volodymyr Rybak is refused to be given the status of the Heaven Hundred’s Hero since the relevant Regulation introduced by the Cabinet of Ministers stipulates certain time frames according to which neither him, nor Yuriy Popravka or Yuriy Diakovskyi cannot be awarded with the status. “The Heaven Hundred is not limited by uprisings at the Independence Square (Maydan) in Kyiv, since each of the Ukrainian cities had theirlocal uprisings. The pain of relatives of the fallen is our pain as well. They had fallen defending our Fatherland”, stressed Viktor Smaliy.
“The kidnap and the murder of Volodymyr Rubas is a landmark case. Eventually, massive persecutions and the terror in the East started with this case. We pay homage to this courageous patriot and we have to put all efforts to bring all perpetrators accountable and make Volodymyr Rybak given the Heaven Hundred status,” highlighted Anastasia Chornogorska, the coordinator of the “Vidkrytyi Dialog” (Open Dialogue) Foundation.