Polubatko - the Danish prince of Luhansk separatists. The "Footballer" is back on the field

A citizen of Denmark, known in Ukraine as Polubatko Volodymyr Oleksiyovych, is back in action. Currently, he is actively funding semi-terrorist organizations and their operations in the Luhansk region, while his "fighters" from local gangs repeatedly attack Ukrainian law enforcement and soldiers, as well as officers.

Polubatko has been known to law enforcement since the 90s, during the infamous "wild 90s." Back then, he was a well-known local criminal authority. Even now, he continues his illegal and often criminal activities, despite having become a citizen of Denmark. Stopping Polubatko’s unlawful actions is currently possible only by revoking his Danish citizenship and freezing his financial assets.

 Since the spring of 2014, citizen Polubatko has repeatedly and deliberately organized, and continues to do so, as well as finance endless terrorist actions by LNR militants against Ukraine’s law enforcement structures. He and his accomplices have already started a war. But this must be stopped.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs has already established that citizen Polubatko, known as a criminal authority under the nickname «Footballer», is involved in organizing the funding of sabotage groups operating in the southeastern regions of Ukraine.

“In the Luhansk region, it is known that the criminal business is run by Sokhrannyi Leonid Stepanovych (Belarusian), the right-hand man of the Donetsk overseer from Alchevsk, Polubatko Volodymyr Oleksiyovych (Footballer), with managers listed as Rysukhin V.V. and Petrov V.K. This group has done tremendous work in our region to paint the area blue, including intimidation, threats, arson, and beatings with hammers and bats of supporters of Yushchenko V.A. (information about the painting by Rysukhin V.V. website of Donetsk).

How it was. Starting from the times of Grek, Sedoy, Dobroslav, and Footballer – these overseers controlled all business in the region, and through their managers – in Alchevsk. This includes Rysukhin V.V., in Luhansk – Danylov A.M., who led them. The business sphere included racketeering, metallurgy, the coal industry, including «kopanky» (illegal mines), VAT fraud, trade, and drug trafficking. Monthly, money from the common fund was allocated to «zones» – 50-100 thousand UAH for the 15th, 13th, and Chernukhinska zones. In many enterprises of Rysukhin and Petrov, even today, Polubatko Volodymyr Oleksiyovych, Rysukhin, or Petrov are listed, as well as relatives of the mayor of Alchevsk (chairman of the «Party of Regions» and a fervent separatist) – Kyrychenko N.E. Under their control, such notorious appointments of 1994 became possible, such as the appointment of the mayor of Luhansk with an education from a veterinary technical school.
Everyone remembers the times when racketeering became legal. Rysukhin V.V. honestly, for ISD, worked on the bankruptcy of the Alchevsk Metallurgical Plant. Using a fake power of attorney from Donbastransgaz (materials are in the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Luhansk City Prosecutor’s Office), he defrauded all creditors, handing them «dummies» in the form of fake shares. Rysukhin V.V. and Footballer are currently jointly building a gas station on the outskirts of Luhansk towards Staraya Luhanska. However, Footballer oversees things from Denmark (he likes it there), and comes here monthly around the 20th to receive reports from managers – Petrov, Rysukhin, and probably now Danylov.

The fact is that during his lifetime, Akhat Bragin could not subdue the «Yenakiyevo gang». The final resolution of the Yenakiyevo issue was taken over by his successor – Rinat Akhmetov.

The Yenakiyevo organized crime group consisted of a business wing, represented by the Georgian Dolidze brothers, and a combat wing, led by Yuriy Ivanushchenko (aka «Yurets Maloy», «Yura Yenakiyevsky», number 111 on the «Party of Regions» list). In the combat wing, besides Ivanushchenko, notable figures included Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych’s godfather, known as «Zuy» (Zuev A.P.), full-time hitmen Salavatov Rafail Takhirovich «Salavat», Vlad Penkovtsev, and someone named Goncharov, nicknamed «Chizh». The business wing also included aspiring currency dealers, Messrs. Yurushev and Frolov. Leonid Yurushev is now known as the chairman of the board of «Forum» bank.

It is worth dwelling in more detail on the personality of Rafail Takhirovich Salavatov, nicknamed «Salavat». «Salavat» was recognized as an especially dangerous recidivist back in the early 90s, having spent almost his entire life in prisons until perestroika. However, if before perestroika he was mainly engaged in robbery, after it he specialized in extortion, banditry, and contract killings. Surprisingly, he was no longer imprisoned. Not because «Salavat» was elusive, but rather because, with the strengthening of the local mafia, the Donetsk police merely became one of its subdivisions.

Until 1994, «Salavat» was part of the Dolidze brothers’ group, which operated in Yenakiyevo, Shakhtarsk, Kirovsk, Debaltseve, and also in the Luhansk region. Luhansk criminal leaders «Belarusian» (Sokhrannyi Leonid Stepanovych) and «Footballer» (Polubatko Volodymyr Oleksiyovych) were already operating under the «Donetsk umbrella» at that time. Interestingly, «Footballer» still effectively controls the Luhansk region, although he permanently resides in Denmark. The legislation there, you see, is very lenient.

But once a month, he comes to Luhansk to «collect the cash» and «resolve» accumulated issues.

«Salavat» was also involved in organizing large-scale thefts from Yenakiyevo factories. In 1994, when the war between the groups of Alik Grek and the Dolidze brothers began, after the murder of several Dolidze associates, including Abramitsky, Kravchuk, and Ivchenko – Ivanushchenko («Yurets Maloy») left the Dolidze group, taking with him Zuev («Zuy») – Viktor Yanukovych’s godfather – and «Salavat».

When the Dolidze brothers realized that Grek, and after his death, Akhmetov, were waging a war for their complete destruction, they tried to resist. In particular, they kidnapped «Salavat». However, he managed to escape after some time. On February 2, 1998, near the building of the Donetsk Prosecutor’s Office, «Salavat» killed Grigory Dolidze. From that moment, Rinat Akhmetov became the only real leader in the Donetsk region. Among the most notable «associates» of the current de facto leader of the «Party of Regions», it is worth mentioning Oleksandr Morozov, who, on the orders of Alik Grek, shot Yanosh Krants, and in Akhmetov’s group, headed the security service. Givi Nemsadze, who controlled the Proletarsky district of Donetsk, was also close to Akhmetov. In more recent times, when Akhmetov was making every effort to legitimize himself, the uncontrollable Nemsadze became inconvenient for Rinat Leonidovych, and he was simply handed over to Russian law enforcement. Alongside Akhmetov were such well-known figures as «Mishanya Kosoy» (Mykhailo Lyashko), future Ukrainian MPs from the Party of Regions Chertkov Yuriy Dmytrovych («Chert»), Kiy Serhiy Viktorovych («Kiy»), Arkalaev Nurulislam Gadzhiyevych («Nurik»), the aforementioned Yuriy Ivanushchenko («Yurets Maloy»), and, of course, the head of the Donetsk Regional Department of Internal Affairs, Volodymyr Malyshev, as the «overseer» of the police.

From a statement by «Right Sector»: «Today, alongside open aggression from Russia, an internal counter-revolution has intensified. Its vanguard is the revanchist forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, including those in high positions. The bandit-police group is led by the separatist accomplice and Moscow’s puppet, General Yevdokimov.»

General Volodymyr Yevdokimov is the first deputy head of the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs. Local press accuses him of corruption, claiming that the state official even owns a 23-meter yacht, and of having ties with criminal clans in the southeast of the country, particularly with the Donetsk authoritative businessman Volodymyr Polubatko, nicknamed Footballer.

In «Right Sector», they believe that Yevdokimov is involved in the murder of their activist Oleksandr Muzychko (aka Sashko Bilyi), who for a long time terrorized all of Western Ukraine with a machine gun and was shot while attempting to resist the police. Since then, allegedly at Yevdokimov’s instigation, widespread persecution of «Right Sector» has begun.

As the publication “Obkom” wrote, citing an article in “Grani+” dated April 26, 2004, Yevdokimov worked as the head of the department for combating organized crime in the Luhansk region from 1995 to 1998. At that time, “there were whispers in the corridors of the Ministry of Internal Affairs about unconventional connections between Yevdokimov and notorious figures like the Donetsk authority Volodymyr Polubatko, nicknamed “Footballer”.

“Obkom” wrote that the Minister of Internal Affairs Mykola Bilokon (Bilokon was one of the few heads of the Ministry of Internal Affairs with "..a clear conscience and clean hands, devoted to Ukraine) dismissed Volodymyr Yevdokimov at that time “for a very questionable reputation” and connections with the criminal world, including Volodymyr Polubatko.

Author: Olga Sergeeva