Formal charges filed against suspect in Sternenko assassination attempt

This information came from a court session broadcast on the YouTube channel Espreso. 

According to Ukrinform, the prosecutor requested a preventive measure of detention without the right to post bail.

In response, the suspect’s lawyer, Anatoliy Yurchenko, asked the court to consider house arrest instead. He explained that the suspect, Lyudmila Chymerska, suffers from a serious illness and is undergoing hemodialysis. According to him, she committed the crime because FSB officers allegedly promised her a kidney transplant.

According to Hromadske, individuals posing as representatives of the Security Service of Ukraine allegedly blackmailed Lyudmyla Chymerska, accusing her of treason. They reportedly manipulated her into believing that Serhiy Sternenko was working for the FSB and was responsible for attacks on Kyiv.

Chymerska stated that prior to the attack, she underwent shooting training and received a weapon from a man whose identity she cannot recall.

She also said she has a first-group disability and requires hemodialysis three times a week. Her lawyer stressed that she is in urgent need of a kidney transplant.

After the court selected the preventive measure, lawyer Anatoliy Yurchenko stated that his client admits her guilt but was deceived.

"This person introduced herself as an Ukrainian Security Service employee, and [Chymerska] believed until the last moment that she was carrying out the Security Service tasks," Yurchenko said.

The court ruled to keep Chymerska in custody until June 29. She is under suspicion for attempted murder and is also suspected of treason.

Fourth attack on Sternenko

Ukrainian ctivist and volunteer Serhiy Sternenko was attacked and sustained an injury. Ukrainska Pravda found that the suspect received money from Russian intelligence services.

According to the Security Service of Ukraine, agency officers prevented the murder and detained the attacker. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that all facts related to the attack on the activist would be presented to the public.

Previous attacks on Serhiy Sternenko

Since 2014, Serhiy Sternenko has been attacked three times. During the most recent attack in 2018, two men attacked him. Sternenko was accused of inflicting fatal injuries on one of the attackers, Ivan Kuznetsov. At the time, the second attacker fled the scene.

The prosecution claimed that Sternenko intentionally killed Kuznetsov. After the failed attack, according to the prosecution, Ivan began to flee, but Sternenko allegedly chased him down and inflicted fatal knife wounds.

However, Sternenko denied the prosecution's version, claiming it was self-defense and that he did not chase Kuznetsov. The defendant stated that his attacker began fleeing only after he, in self-defense, injured him.

In 2020, Sternenko was formally charged with intentional murder.

As a result of a Kyiv expert examination conducted in March 2023, it was determined that the attacker, Ivan Kuznetsov, could have run a certain distance after receiving the heart injury. This statement contradicted a previous expert examination, which suggested that Kuznetsov would have lost consciousness within 20 seconds of receiving the injury, making it impossible for him to have run that distance where he was found.

On June 9, 2023, Baymukashev Abzal, one of Sternenko's attackers, was found guilty of attempted murder and illegal possession and handling of weapons. He was sentenced to 10 years.

In December of the same year, the Primorsky District Court of Odesa closed the case against Serhiy Sternenko.