The bishop was born in Lutsk on 18 September 1961 and lived almost his entire life in the city. He graduated from the Kyiv Institute of Civil Aviation Engineers and the Volyn Theological Seminary, was a member of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, and in 2009 became a laureate of the Ivan Franko Prize. The editorial staff of Volynski Novyny recalled that he was the founder and permanent host of the Bible School of Spiritual Perfection, a theologian, writer, preacher and missionary.
The school was established in February 1997 at the Holy Trinity Cathedral. That same year Vedmedenko became a deacon of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate. In 2006, after a conflict with that church, he was ordained a priest of the Ukrainian Apostolic Orthodox Church, and in 2012 he became a bishop. Since 2013 he had headed the Volyn and Galicia Diocese. The bishop's last books, Spiritual Guides and Explanation of Church Services, were published in 2019 and 2020, and earlier a collection, The Key of David (2001), had been published.
The accident on Vasyl Moisei Avenue
On 14 November, between approximately 9 and 10 p.m., Roman Savych, a 22-year-old driver from the village of Zhydychyn, drove onto the sidewalk on Vasyl Moisei Avenue and struck the sixty-year-old bishop. The car was a Mazda 6 belonging to the driver's wife. According to Volynski Novyny, Savych was found to have a blood alcohol level of 1.27 promille. After the collision he drove to the parking lot of the Promin shopping and entertainment centre, where he was detained by passers-by and patrol officers. The centre itself had no connection to the incident other than being the place of detention.
Vedmedenko was taken to the Lutsk City Clinical Hospital, where he died on the morning of 15 November. The publication wrote of it thus: "in the morning of 15 November his heart stopped beating." The editorial staff of Volynski Novyny expressed their "sincere condolences to the family, loved ones and friends of the deceased." In the comments under the article, readers recalled the bishop's sermons and the Sunday school for teenagers that he led in the late 1990s.
in the morning of 15 November his heart stopped beating
On the evening of 15 November, a litia was held at the Church of the Resurrection of Christ, where the bishop had been rector. The next day, 16 November, the funeral service and burial took place in the church courtyard. On the same day, the Lutsk City and District Court, Judge Alla Paliushko presiding, ordered Savych held for 60 days without bail, that is, until 12 January 2022. The case was classified under Part 3 of Article 286-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which deals with a violation of traffic safety rules by a driver in a state of intoxication resulting in death.
A conviction that was not enforced
Savych had been convicted before this accident as well. In the summer of 2020 he attacked municipal security guards in Lutsk with a gas canister and received three years of restricted freedom under Part 2 of Article 350 of the Criminal Code. On 19 October 2021, the Volyn Court of Appeal upheld the sentence, but the punishment was not enforced. It was this story that appeared in publications on 17 November, when several outlets reported on the driver's previous conviction.
The family of the deceased sought a more serious charge. On 17 December, a video of the moment of the accident was published, and on 24 December the investigation was completed, with Part 1 of Article 135 of the Criminal Code added, which covers leaving a person in danger. At the hearing on 7 February 2022, Savych stated that he "did not flee." On 22 February 2022, the court sentenced him to 8 years and 6 months of imprisonment and 9 years of disqualification from driving.
On 7 September 2022, the Volyn Court of Appeal upheld the sentence.
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