An icon and the salvation of Odesa, new principles of power outages, and sudden deaths: highlights of the week

Agafangel is the savior of Odesa

On December 15, journalist Natalia Mosiychuk, a presenter of the 1+1 TV channel, presented the film "Cool Odesa," which is almost entirely composed of interviews with the head of the Odesa Regional Administration, Oleh Kiper.

Photo collage: Intent

Probably the most discussed in the media was Oleh Kiper's statement that Metropolitan Agafangel saved Odesa from the Russian landing in 2022 with an icon and a prayer. There were other theses that were obviously intended to form a positive image of Oleh Kiper.

In general, political scientists and journalists had the impression that the interview could be a preparation for the elections. Earlier, the head of the Odesa regional organization of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine, Anatoliy Boyko, predicted that they would be held in 2025 by 99%.

"The style of the interview is close to the program. Such interviews are often conducted on the eve of the election campaign. But the question remains whether this is Mr. Kiper's own initiative or part of the president's national campaign," Anatoliy Boyko noted.

The conversation with Oleh Kiper was interspersed with a trip to the Transfiguration Cathedral, a meeting with the crew of a mobile fire team, and visits to a power plant and one of the military hospitals in the region and the Odesa House of Scientists.

Meanwhile, in Odesa, the rector of the church of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate faces imprisonment for justifying the Russian occupiers and praising the Russian president.

According to the agency, during his sermons and conversations with parishioners, the archpriest praised Russian President Vladimir Putin and glorified the Russian occupiers. In addition, the priest tried to justify the war crimes of Russian troops, in particular the shelling of Ukraine's civilian infrastructure.

New schedules of power outages

The electricity distribution operator DTEK Odesa Electricity Networks announced the introduction of unified schedules of stabilization blackouts in Odesa region and other regions of Ukraine.

Photo: DTEK Odesa Power Grids

According to the energy company, if earlier the approach to the formation of outage schedules in different regions differed significantly in terms of the number of hours with and without electricity, now a single approach to creating schedules throughout the country has been introduced, which is fixed by law.

What has changed:

• The outage schedule is divided into 30-minute intervals.
• Each stage is divided into two sub-stages: 1.1 and 1.2, 2.1 and 2.2. You can check which one you belong to on the DTEK Odesa Power Grids website.
• More hours with power - at least 3.5 hours between possible outages in the absence of grid failures.

The daily schedule provides for a clear schedule of the "Power on" (white) and "Power off" (dark gray) zones, which will be published on the distribution operator's social media and website.

A scientist, a former port director, and a judge: sudden deaths last week

Also last week, it became known about the sudden deaths of three well-known people in the region - a museum employee, a former port director, and a judge.

Archaeologist, employee of the Odesa Archaeological Museum, Yevhenia Redina, who for many years was the head of the museum's numismatics and torevtic sector, died on December 14.

Yevheniia Redina was a well-known researcher of ancient monuments of the Northern Black Sea region. Various research and exhibition projects were held under her leadership. She also conducted large-scale field archaeological research.

The former head of the Reni Sea Commercial Port , Dmytro Volodin, died suddenly in the city of Chornomorsk on December 17.

In October 2018, a commission of the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine selected a new head of the Reni Sea Commercial Port from four candidates. It appointed Dmytro Volodin.

In 2023, Dmytro Volodin pleaded guilty to evading the payment of a single contribution to the mandatory state social insurance and insurance contributions to the mandatory state pension insurance, but was acquitted of the charges because the losses to the state were fully compensated.

Viktor Poprevych, a retired judge of the Prymorskyi District Court of Odesa, known for finding activist Serhii Sternenko guilty of kidnapping in February 2021, died on December 17.

In October 1992, Viktor Poprevych was elected as a people's judge of the Kyiv District People's Court of Donetsk, and held the positions of judge, deputy chairman and chairman of this court. In March 2015, he was transferred to the position of judge of the Prymorskyi District Court of Odesa.

Judicial stories: an apartment in Dubai and an attempt to mobilize from criminal liability

Judge of the Kyiv District Court of Odesa Alla Malomuzh did not indicate in her declaration the rental of an apartment in the United Arab Emirates worth almost 700 thousand hryvnias.

Journalists found information about the judge's Dubai real estate in documents kept by the Dubai Department of Land Resources. According to these documents, it is a 117-square-meter apartment in the 14-storey Orin Building, located in the Al Barsha district, a 15-minute drive from Dubai's Palm Jumeihra Island. The property consists of a hall and two bedrooms.

During the conversation with the journalist, the judge denied that she rented an apartment in Dubai, advising journalists to contact law enforcement agencies with the information received.

"I can tell you from the bottom of my heart that there has never been a judge like me and probably never will be. I have never taken a single bribe in my life. I have conducted legal proceedings only in accordance with the law. A judge like me should be highlighted and put on a pedestal," the judge told reporters by phone.

Valentyn Zaveriukha, a judge of Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi City District Court in Odesa Oblast, asked to suspend the disciplinary case against him, citing his mobilization to the Armed Forces.

The complaint against the judge was filed by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU). The complaint alleged disciplinary violations during the consideration of several court cases.

Despite mobilization, the disciplinary chamber decided that the judge's participation in the case was possible. In January 2024, the SBU, together with the NABU, detained a judge of the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi Court of Odesa Oblast. According to the investigation, the judge took bribes of $3,500 to make decisions that allowed men of conscription age to avoid mobilization and go abroad.

Scandals in the police and TCC

A video of a conflict between police officers and women in Odesa, during which one of the police officers knocked one of the rivals to the ground and broke her arms, appeared on social media on December 16.

The video shows a group of women arguing with a police officer, which leads to a scuffle, and the police officer throws himself at one of the opponents. Another woman in a green sweater kicks the policeman. It is unclear whether the woman hit or not and how hard the kick was, but the policeman turned around and grabbed the woman in the sweater by the neck and began to push her to the ground, and after he had her down, he twisted her arm. The recording is interrupted at this point.

The police said they were detaining a deserter, and the women began to aggressively interfere.

Meanwhile, a tragic incident occurred in the city of Tatarbunary, in the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi district of Odesa region, when a police officer committed suicide using his service weapon.

The circumstances and reasons that could have prompted the police officer to take such a step have not yet been disclosed.

This was the second case of suicide among law enforcement officers in Odesa region in recent days. Earlier, on December 10, a 29-year-old police officer of the convoy service died in Odesa. He inflicted a fatal wound to his head after a quarrel with his wife. The man was taken to the hospital in an extremely serious condition, but doctors were unable to save him.

The Territorial Centers for Recruitment and Social Support also sent out information messages.

Thus, a number of telegram channels disseminated information about the death of a mobilized man in the premises of the Primorsky RTCS and SP in Odesa. However, this was not the case. While at the assembly point, one of the conscripts felt sick. An ambulance was immediately called to the scene, and the management received a report on the situation. The doctors decided to hospitalize the man for further examination and treatment.

Instead, the Odesa resident managed to appeal the administrative fine of 17 thousand hryvnias for not having a military ID card in court. The plaintiff argued that he had provided the authorized persons with the military registration document he had at the time, his service record card, but was detained and fined. The plaintiff also claimed that his case was considered without his participation, and he received a copy of the decision to bring him to justice only during the trial.