Vasyl Pascal. Policeman-werewolf. He served Yanukovych – and now he serves Poroshenko.
On November 24, Vasyl Pascal was appointed First Deputy Chief of the National Police. This appointment caused a stir among the public, as he is considered responsible for the persecution, beatings, and even murder of Maidan protesters during the "Revolution of Dignity." Having successfully avoided lustration, the security official not only retained his position but also achieved a significant career advancement. During Viktor Yanukovych's presidency, he was nicknamed "Yanukovych's watchdog." He earned this nickname due to his unquestioning obedience to his superiors' orders, no matter what they were.
An avid "servant"
Vasily Fedorovich was born in September 1963. He spent his entire career as an investigator in the internal affairs agencies. He headed the Criminal Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in the Donetsk region.
After appointment Yuriy Lutsenko Pascal, the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, was sent on a special mission to Crimea. It was related to the need to prevent several defendants in major criminal cases from leaving Ukraine. His team was tasked with investigating so-called "execution" cases. Among other things, their actions resulted in the arrest of Crimean parliament member Oleksandr Melnyk. His arrest received widespread media attention. Rumors circulated that the police had resorted to "criminal" actions to "dig up" material on Melnyk. Specifically, according to information, criminals were being investigated. Skelet.OrgThose who might know something were tortured by Vasily Pascal, forcing them to say what the investigation needed.
There are also rumors that Melnyk was hiding from justice at Pascal's in Kyiv, discussing the format and conditions of his "arrest." As a result, he was quite well "milked."
Over time, the "Melnik case" was reclassified as "banditry." This was allegedly based on archives detailing the activities of the organized crime group "Salem," which were found in the Crimean deputy's home.
Around the same time, Pascal illegally acquired property in Crimea. While investigating the activities of the "Bashmaki" organized crime group, Vasily Fedorovich gained the trust of the wife of Viktor Karachev, one of the group's members, and even cohabited with her for a time. After Karachev was arrested (thanks to Vasily Fedorovich's proactive efforts), Pascal "gratuitously" received a share in a boarding house owned by Karachev's wife. Some time later, he "squeezed" it outright. The same thing happened with the shares of the Simferopol market, which Karachev owned before his arrest. Not a bad side job for a "policeman," right?
In early November 2011, at the suggestion of then-Minister of Internal Affairs Vitaliy Zakharchenko, he was appointed head of the Main Directorate of Criminal Investigation of the Criminal Police Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In January 2012, he was appointed head of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine.
Vitaly Zakharchenko and Vasily Pascal
After this, Vasily Paskal became a key player in the scandalous "Pavlyuchenko case"—he was responsible for collecting and fabricating evidence. His actions led to the indictment of Sergei and Dmitry Pavlichenko for a murder they did not commit. If not for the "Revolution of Dignity," Sergei Pavlichenko would have served 13 years in prison, and his father, Dmitry, would have been imprisoned for life.
On the other side of the barricades
During the "Revolution of Dignity," Vasyl Fedorovich's main responsibility was monitoring Maidan activists and using "physical force" against them. With his operational experience, finding them wasn't difficult. One of Pascal's schemes involved rounding up wounded activists directly from hospitals, where they sought treatment after clashes with Berkut officers. After several mass arrests, activists began arriving at hospitals in large groups, and this scheme was no longer effective. So Vasyl Fedorovich devised a new method. Activists were abducted in groups as they approached hospitals, and sometimes they were dragged right from their wards and taken to an unknown location. One such incident was the kidnapping of Mykhailo Havrylyuk, a former Maidan activist and now a member of parliament. This infamous video shows Berkut officers tormenting Havrylyuk, demonstrating their superiority.
(According to the Berkut version, which has a right to exist, Gavrilyuk's clothes were soaked with gasoline from Molotov cocktails, and he could have caught fire at any moment. That's why they stripped him.)
Security forces abducted activists Ihor Lutsenko and Yuriy Veribitsky in a similar manner. As was later revealed, they were taken out of town and held in a garage for a long time, occasionally beaten. Veribitsky succumbed to the torture. His body was found on January 22 near the Boryspil forest belt. Ihor Lutsenko survived; he had been left in the forest with a bag over his head, but he managed to escape. During the Prosecutor General's Office's investigation, it was discovered that several Ministry of Internal Affairs officials were involved in the crime. One of them, according to sources, was Vasyl Paskal. However, the case was quietly hushed up, pretending the perpetrators had never been found.
Throughout the "revolution of dignity," Vasyl Paskal "catched" Maidan activists undesirable to the Ukrainian government and "punished" them. Rumor has it that the blood of every person beaten in the streets during this time is on his hands. As the conflict between security forces and Maidan activists escalated, Paskal devised a new "trick." He posted online all text and photographic materials about "unwanted" Maidan activists (including, incidentally, Mustafa Nayem). The media dubbed these materials a "hit list." Furthermore, Paskal is credited with the idea of sending SMS messages reading "Dear subscriber, you are registered as a participant in mass unrest" to people on and around the Maidan.
Under-funded
As mentioned above, Vasyl Fedorovich served in the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs since 2011. This period marked the final stage of the government's "purge" of businessmen and politicians unfavorable to Yanukovych. He served as head of the Main Directorate of Criminal Investigation of the Criminal Police Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for over two years. This is a direct violation of the law "On the Purification of Power," which stipulates that individuals who held senior government positions for extended periods from 2010 to 2014 are prohibited from seeking high government positions for the next 10 years.
Vasyl Pascal. Policeman-werewolf. He served Yanukovych – and now he serves Poroshenko.
The most interesting thing is that epyfk Skelet.Org — In May 2015, the District Administrative Court rejected the claim of the Public Council on Lustration Issues, which demanded the dismissal of Vasily Fedorovich from the post of Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs under the law "On the Purification of Power." However, the claim was dismissed. One of the versions that explains why Pascal is so closely "protected" is his connections with Arsen Avakov (Read more about it in the article Arsen Avakov: The criminal past of the Minister of Internal Affairs), which are discussed in more detail in the program “Schemes”.
Vasyl Pascal. Policeman-werewolf. He served Yanukovych – and now he serves Poroshenko.
Despite all the factors implicating Pascal in illegal activities, in late 2014, the new Minister of Internal Affairs, Arsen Avakov, appointed him his deputy. This sparked a flurry of protests and criticism directed at Avakov from the public and politicians. And recently, they succeeded in achieving their demands: Vasily Fedorovich was dismissed from his post "due to a transfer to another job." However, the joy was short-lived, as this "other job" turned out to be the deputy chief of police, Khatia Dekanoidze.
A provocateur in power?
One of the most recent "feats" for which Vasyl Paskal distinguished himself was his actions during a rally near the Verkhovna Rada on August 31, 2015. On that day, as Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, Vasyl Paskal gave orders to National Guard soldiers to throw explosive charges and smoke devices back into the crowds of protesters.
The man giving the orders in the video is Vasyl Paskal. These actions should be classified as "abuse of power." After all, Ukrainian law does not authorize National Guard troops to use such methods against protesters. The trial in this case was unsuccessful, and the National Guard troops found guilty of violating the law and Vasyl Paskal, who gave the orders, have not been punished. Clearly, Paskal has excellent protection, which has repeatedly saved him not only from prison but also from a simple reprimand, let alone dismissal.
Or perhaps Vasily Paskal has enough operational and other information, compromising material, to put the entire current political elite in jail for many years?
Dmitry Samofalov, for Skelet.Org
Subscribe to our channels in Telegram, Facebook, Twitter, VC — Only new faces from the section CRYPT!