In Dnipro, the investigation continues into the case of a man who was seriously injured after being beaten by people in balaclavas, whom the victim’s wife and witnesses link to a TCC notification group. As of April 16, Sergey has been in a coma for 22 days—there has been no change in his condition.
The incident occurred in late March. The victim’s wife, Valentina, said her husband was attacked by unidentified people with no insignia: witnesses saw him lying on the ground while a man in a balaclava stood nearby. After that, she said, he was forced onto a bus. His phone’s geolocation allowed her to track his route. About 40 minutes later, an ambulance arrived at the destination, and the man was handed over to medics—already unconscious, complaining of a headache, vomiting blood, and with a visible deformation of the skull near the temple. The diagnosis was a severe closed traumatic brain injury that required surgery. Sergey’s military registration documents were in order, and he was not listed as wanted.
The TCC has not changed its account: Olena Kuzina, a spokesperson for the agency, said the man fell on his own in the dark while running away from a notification group, after which he was found sitting on the asphalt—and the soldiers called an ambulance.
Now, according to Valentina, the investigation appears to be moving toward closing the case. The investigator has been replaced, and the new one has taken a different position: the victim allegedly fell on his own and then voluntarily boarded the TCC bus, after which they went together to a medical facility at 19 Panikakhy Street. Video evidence, she said, was deliberately degraded in editing software before being added to the case file. The investigator is not requesting a significant share of the materials that could corroborate the circumstances of what happened—and without his request, the lawyer has no way to obtain them independently. Investigators are not communicating with Valentina herself.
The videos published by Sergey’s wife, she says, show events from the same day—March 25. These materials, she says, are not being added to the case file. According to her, the footage shows police officers, TCC personnel and unidentified men in balaclavas acting together. “Are we now looking for offenders through the police?” Valentyna wrote.
In addition, she alleges document forgery: according to her, the case file contains a certificate indicating the presence of alcohol in the victim’s blood. In her view, the case is being prepared for reclassification as an “accident” and then closed.
The criminal proceeding formally remains open.