"As part of the investigation of criminal proceedings over an attack on a gas station and the killings of law enforcement officers on the night of May 4 in Kiev, another suspect has been arrested: a 19-year-old resident of Vinnitsa," a statement on the website of the Kiev prosecutor's office reads.
The statement added that Zaverukha has been detained under the criminal code article for an "attempt on the life of an officer of the law."
Zaverukha, a volunteer in the radical nationalist Aidar Battalion with openly neo-Nazi views, was briefly lionized as a media darling last year as a "heroine fighting against separatists."
Pure Unadulterated Banditry
Citing ex-Kiev-2 Battalion volunteer Evgeniy Karas, Vesti has reported that Zaverukha's four male accomplices were all members of volunteer battalions fighting in country's eastern 'anti-terrorist operation' zone. Among them was Vadim Pinus, 23, a decorated Azov Battalion fighter who was killed in the shootout with police.
The others include 20-year-old Evgeniy Koshelyuk, a volunteer who has served in the Azov, Aidar and Tornado battalions, 17-year-old sniper Andrei Romanyuk, and 17-year-old Nikolai Monishenko, an activist and organizer for ultra-right organizations who had been renting the apartment where the suspects hid after the attack on police officers.
The Aidar Battalion is one of several dozen volunteer militia groups which were formed following the Maidan coup last year; since then it has been placed under the command of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense. Amnesty International and the OSCE have accused the battalion of human rights abuses and war crimes against civilians in eastern Ukraine.
Zaverukha, Neo-Nazi Media Darling
Zaverukha, who is known among Ukrainian social media users for her neo-Nazi views, is believed to have participated in the May 2, 2014 attacks at the Odessa House of Trade Unions which resulted in the burning and shooting deaths of several dozen anti-Maidan activists. She is also suspected of attempting to destroy a thermal power station in militia-controlled Luhansk, and of attempting to organize the robbery of the office of a Russian firm operating in her home city of Vinnitsa, central Ukraine. In March, a video appeared showing Zaverukha shooting an RPG into a village in Donbass 'just for fun'.
卐 @ELLEfrance’s heroine V.#Zaverukha in action again—“Death to the Orthodox”. Mortar sport: ➡https://t.co/ioVb4b1Cht pic.twitter.com/SuikmNcziT
— John Delacour (@JohnDelacour) 27 Март 2015
Last year, Zaverukha had become somewhat of a media darling in both the Ukrainian and foreign press, and even glorified as "Ukraine's Joan of Arc." Late last year, fashion journal Elle France was forced to issue an apology after publishing a stylized photo of Zaverukha in their magazine. Stating that they were "shocked to learn…the true ideological beliefs of this woman," the journal stated that they "vigorously condemn all and any xenophobic, anti-Semite, racist and Nazi ideologies."
Rabid #Nazi Vita Zaveruha who talks about killing Russians and Jews gets featured in @ELLEfrance. #Ukraine pic.twitter.com/UOtCCkXCFo
— דן (@nopegut) 28 декабря 2014
Social media users and commentators are now asking whether Ukrainian Internal Affairs Minister Arsen Avakov, an avowed supporter of the volunteer battalions operating in the so-called 'anti-terrorist operation' in eastern Ukraine, will have the fortitude to carry through the cases against the cop killers through to conviction.
Ekaterina Roshuk, the former Managing Director at The Kyiv Times, commented on Zaveruha's case in a Facebook post, noting that Zaverukha had "long 'terrorized' the city, with no one able to do anything about her. The police were afraid to touch a hero of the Anti-Terrorist Operation, which in turn was used as license to engage in lawlessness."
Blog post - Vita Zaverukha, Heroine of the ATO http://t.co/51B6GDByEi Putting the bandit into Banderism #fb pic.twitter.com/TPZvbDmfUC
— Anatoly Karlin (@akarlin88) 7 мая 2015
Нацистская ШАВКА ВИТА ЗАВЕРУХА попалась! Она арестована! http://t.co/qIzhkmSL5b pic.twitter.com/O73jy9jXno
— Евгений Шушаков (@EvShu) 7 мая 2015
"The Nazi mutt Vita Zaverukha has been caught! She has been arrested!"
Roshuk noted with worry that "if the 'heroes' are doing this in Kiev, what are they doing in the zone of the Anti-Terrorist Operation, where there are no 'bad' Ukrainian police, but only the 'Russian world' vs. heroes?"
Commenting on the mushrooming of armed volunteer battalions all across Ukraine, the journalist also stated that "until the monopoly on the use of force is returned to the security organs, life will be dangerous. And the police, the Security Service and the military prosecutors have A LOT of work to do."
