Sergei Sternenko

Sergei Vyacheslavovich Sternenko is a Ukrainian public figure, lawyer, video blogger.

Brief biography

Sergei Sternenko was born on March 20, 1995 in the village of Sadovoye, Odessa region.

He became known as an active participant in the "Revolution of Dignity". At the end of 2013, he became an active member of the Euromaidan in Odessa, and later became one of its leaders.

He took part in the standoff on Hrushevsky Street in Kyiv on February 20, 2014.

In February 2014, he headed the Right Sector cell in Odessa, which he left in February 2017.

In May 2014, he participated in the resistance to pro-Russian forces in Odessa.

In the same year, he initiated the "garbage lustration".

In 2015, the charitable foundation "Journalists for Democracy" included Sternenko in the list of "100 influential Odessians" (56th place).

In the fall of 2015 he was a participant in the blockade of Crimea.

In 2016, Sternenko received a higher education, graduating from the Odessa College of Economics, Law and Hotel and Restaurant Business with a degree in jurisprudence.

He worked as a legal advisor at Oscar T.

In 2018 was one of the founders of the public organization "Nebaiduzhi" in Odessa.

In 2019, he graduated from the Odessa University named after M.V. Lomonosov with a degree in Law. Mechnikov with a degree in jurisprudence.

Charges of kidnapping.

In 2015, a case was opened against Sternenko on suspicion of kidnapping a deputy of the Kominternovsky district council of the Odessa region, Sergei Shcherbich, who was a member of the pro-Russian party "Rodina". In September of the same year, a court in Odessa took him into custody for two months, but later released him on bail in the amount of 60 thousand hryvnias. The money for the bail was provided by Gennadiy Korban.

In February 2021, the court sentenced Sterenko to 7 years in a colony with confiscation of half of the property.

The court found an aggravating factor in the fact that Sternenko committed the crime because of the victim's political views.

The activist pleaded not guilty.

He was taken into custody right in the courtroom.

Attacks on Sternenko

In February and May 2018, there were three attacks on Sternenko. They occurred after the activist, together with other Odessans, protested against the destruction of the Summer Theater in Odessa by the city authorities.

After the first and second attacks, Sternenko twice asked the police to provide protection, but both times he was denied. After the third attack, the police promised to provide guards, but they never did.

During the first attack in February, attackers attacked Sternenko outside the house where he lives and severely beat him. After the attack, he was in the hospital for a week.

During the second attack in May, Sternenko was trapped as he was leaving the street from his home. The attacker shot him twice in the neck area with a traumatic gun. During the arrest the man also fired at eyewitnesses to the attack.

The attacker turned out to be Abzal Baikumashev, previously convicted of robbery.

The third attack happened again in May, when two men attacked Sternenko and his girlfriend Natalia Usatenko. Sternenko suffered a knife wound to his hand and a concussion as a result of the attack. One of the attackers, Ivan Kuznetsov, received a fatal stab wound as a result of the fight with Sternenko. The second attacker, Alexander Isaikul, fled the scene, but was detained by police a day later. He was subsequently reclassified as a witness in the attack case. Isaikul then fled Ukraine.

Those who ordered the attack on Sternenko have not been identified.

In October 2019, the Office of the Prosecutor General took the Sternenko case from the police and transferred it to the SBU Main Investigative Directorate. This was due to the possible involvement of the Odessa police in the organization of the attack.

Subsequently, the case regarding the third attack on Sternenko was reclassified as the Kuznetsov murder case.

On June 11, 2020, Sternenko was informed of the suspicion of committing a crime under Art. 115 p. 1 (intentional unlawful causing the death of another person) and Article 263 Part 2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (carrying a cold weapon without a permit provided by law).

On the same day, the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union called the prosecution of Sternenko politically motivated.

On June 16, a court sent Sternenko under house arrest in Kyiv, where he actually lived.

On June 23, it became known that the suspicion against Kuznetsov was cancelled.

On January 29, 2021, the judge of the Primorsky District Court of Odessa released Sternenko on the bail of MP Roman Lozinsky.