According to Volynski Novyny, the accident occurred around 22:00 at the roundabout near the Avanhard Stadium. The driver of a Mazda with license plate AC2941EI was speeding and lost control. The car skidded, was thrown onto the curb, and hit a pedestrian. According to eyewitnesses, the man was thrown almost twenty meters. The time in the sources differs. Other publications reported that the ambulance call came in at 21:05, so the exact hour of the accident remains in question.
The victim was 60-year-old Bishop Oleh Vedmedenko. He was born in Lutsk on September 18, 1961, and in February 1997 founded the Bible School of Spiritual Perfection at the Holy Trinity Cathedral, which he personally led until recently. His path in Ukrainian Orthodoxy was not easy. In 2006 he clashed with the UOC-KP, and on November 5 of that year he was ordained a priest in the UAOC. In 2012 he became a bishop, from 2013 he headed the Volyn and Galicia Eparchy, and in 2015–2019 he was the first hierarch of the UNAPC. He was also a member of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine and an author of books.
Injuries and Intensive Care
Volodymyr Shmal, director of the Volyn Regional Center for Emergency Medical Care, listed the victim's injuries. Among them were traumatic amputation of the lower third of the right leg, a crushed pelvis, lung injury, a traumatic brain injury, and major blood loss. Vedmedenko was taken to the intensive care unit of the Lutsk City Clinical Hospital. Shmal described the condition in one phrase, reported by the newspaper Volynski Novyny:
“traumatic amputation of the lower third of the right leg”
The injury was extremely severe, and medics fought for the bishop's life immediately after admission. This was reported in the first publications, when the victim's name was not yet known to the general public. The Volynski Novyny article was updated as the story developed. Initially it mentioned a pedestrian whose leg had been torn off, and after the name became known, the text was updated.
The Driver and a Previous Sentence
At the wheel was Roman Savych, 22, a resident of the village of Zhydychyn. According to police, he tried to flee the scene, but patrol officers detained him near the Promin entertainment center. He was also detained by witnesses, including lawyer Ihor Vasyliuk and Maksym Olishchuk. Police opened a criminal case under Part 3 of Article 286-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which provides for punishment for traffic violations by a person under the influence of alcohol, with a sanction of five to ten years' imprisonment.
Savych was already known to law enforcement. In 2020 he attacked Lutsk municipal guards with a gas canister and received three years of restricted freedom under Part 2 of Article 350 of the Criminal Code. On October 19, 2021, the Volyn Court of Appeal upheld this sentence. The punishment was not enforced, and the driver remained at liberty when the accident occurred.
What Happened Next
On the morning of November 15, Oleh Vedmedenko died in the Lutsk City Clinical Hospital. In the evening, a litia was held at the Church of the Resurrection of Christ, where he was the rector. Savych's detention was formalized under Article 208 of the Criminal Procedure Code. On November 16, the funeral service and burial took place in the church courtyard. On the same day, the Lutsk City District Court, represented by Judge Alla Paliushko, imposed a preventive measure on Savych in the form of 60 days' custody without the right to bail, i.e., until January 12, 2022.
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