“Nothing Is Happening” – Father of Murdered 3-Year Old Boy On Official Investigation into Assassination

40 days after the shocking shooting in central Kyiv that took the life of a 3-year old boy, his father – Kyiv City Councilmember Vyacheslav Sobolev – says that the official investigation has stalled.

The shooting was an ordered assassination against the councilman, whose young son – Oleksandr – tragically took the bullet meant for his father. And despite the murder occurring in the early evening on a heavily-trafficked street in downtown Kyiv, investigators have made little to no progress following the initial announcement that the hitmen had been identified: Andriy Lavrega and Evhenii Semenov. And while one organizer of the assassination has been named – Yusup Abuyev, a Russian citizen suspected of leading an organized crime group – little progress has been made on his capture.

But Sobolev says, in an exclusive interview to Hromadske, he has been conducting his own investigation. Three days after the assassination attempt, Sobolev held a press conference where he released eight names, calling on them to voluntarily participate in a lie detector test in order to establish their lack of guilt in the matter.

Investigators have yet to speak with any of the named people, says Sobolev.

Abuyev’s father, who was recently in Kyiv, has also not been questioned by authorities, according to Sobolev’s information. And Abuyev’s father has now left Ukraine, leaving even less of a chance for authorities to clarify the situation.

In fact, says Inna Soboleva, the councilman’s wife, it’s hard to tell what the authorities are doing at all. She says that investigators have only spoken to her and her husband once, and have not reacted to any more requests from the couple.

“I can’t know everything that the investigators have. But when no one calls, no one asks about the investigations, about our thoughts...Why aren’t they asking? Why aren’t they questioning the people we weren’t afraid to name? Why aren’t they asking how they are? Why aren’t these people taking the lie detector tests?” asks Inna.

Vyacheslav says his own investigation is being conducted with the help of friends, in lieu of official progress.

“We’ve gone very far [in the investigation]. Why did we start doing this? Because I haven’t seen any action from the site of those people who should be working [on the case],” explained Vyacheslav.

READ MORE: Two People Arrested in Connection with Fatal Shooting of 3 Year Old Child in Kyiv

/Interview by Victoria Roshchyna

/Text by Romeo Kokriatski